cloud storage

Blober Path Templates: Organize Files During Transfer

Jul 20, 2026

What Path Templating Means in Blober

A file transfer normally answers two questions: what should move, and where should it go. Blober adds a third: what destination path should each file receive?

That matters because copying a disorganized source without thinking about paths creates a disorganized backup. A bucket containing clip001.mp4, invoice.pdf, DSC_4821.ARW, and years of nested project folders can be copied exactly as it is, filtered to a useful subset, or rearranged into a new structure while it moves.

Blober path templates are destination rules. They combine ordinary folder text with variables such as {file_ext}, {file_created_date}, and {filename}. Blober evaluates the template separately for every matching file and creates that file's relative destination path.

media/{file_ext}/{file_created_date}/{filename}

For a video named GX015742.MP4 with a reported creation date of July 18, 2026, the relative result is:

media/mp4/2026-07-18/GX015742.MP4

If the selected destination folder is studio-archive, the complete destination becomes:

studio-archive/media/mp4/2026-07-18/GX015742.MP4

No separate organizer, database, script, or integration platform is involved. The organization happens as part of the copy or move.

Where the Feature Is in the App

Path setup spans three numbered sections in the workflow editor. For the step-by-step app reference, see the Workflows guide.

1. Source Configuration

Choose the source provider, authenticate it, then click Browse Files and Folders. You can select individual files, multiple files, folders, or an entire storage root when the provider supports it.

If at least one folder is selected, Advanced Filters (Optional) appears. It can restrict files by:

File extension
Created-date range
File-size range
Whether subdirectories are included
Include glob pattern
Exclude glob pattern

Source selection defines where Blober looks. Filters define which files inside that scope qualify.

2. Destination Configuration

Choose the destination provider and Select Destination Folder. Once the destination is complete, expand Advanced Path Template (Optional).

The Template Pattern field is appended beneath the destination folder. The variable list below the field can be clicked to add placeholders. Blober also shows an example output while the pattern is being edited.

3. Preview & Summary

The preview shows active filters, the destination template, source items, and expected destination paths. This is where a path rule becomes understandable before files move.

Do not treat preview as decoration. A template can deliberately flatten a hierarchy, split files into new folders, or rename every destination. Preview is the check that the rule means what you think it means.

The Three Path Modes

Mode 1: Copy the Structure As-Is

Leave Advanced Path Template empty and keep Include Subdirectories enabled. Blober automatically retains the relative directory structure beneath the selected folder.

Selected folder:

Projects/
  Client-A/
    Final/
      film.mp4

Destination result:

Client-A/Final/film.mp4

This is the right mode for a faithful backup. You do not need a template merely because templates exist.

Mode 2: Flatten the Selection

Leave the template empty and disable Include Subdirectories. Files are placed by filename without their relative source folders.

This can be useful when collecting documents into one destination, but duplicate filenames from different source folders may target the same destination name. Preview the result carefully.

Mode 3: Build a Custom Path

Enter a path template. The template takes control of the relative destination path. Automatic subdirectory preservation no longer adds the source hierarchy behind the scenes.

That rule is easy to miss:

{file_created_date}/{filename}

organizes by date but does not preserve source subfolders.

To retain relative source folders inside a custom path, explicitly include {file_dir}:

{file_created_date}/{file_dir}/{filename}

Read the dedicated {file_dir} guide before relying on it. Its value depends on whether a file or folder was selected and how deeply the file sits beneath that selected folder.

Every Available Variable

Variable	Meaning	Example
`{current_date}`	Current processing date	`2026-07-20`
`{current_datetime}`	Current processing date and time	`2026-07-20_14-30-00`
`{file_created_date}`	Source-reported creation date	`2026-07-18`
`{file_created_datetime}`	Source-reported creation date and time	`2026-07-18_09-15-30`
`{file_modified_date}`	Source-reported modification date	`2026-07-19`
`{file_modified_datetime}`	Source-reported modification date and time	`2026-07-19_16-45-22`
`{file_accessed_date}`	Source-reported access date	`2026-07-20`
`{file_accessed_datetime}`	Source-reported access date and time	`2026-07-20_12-00-15`
`{filename}`	Complete filename	`GX015742.MP4`
`{filename_no_ext}`	Filename without extension	`GX015742`
`{file_ext}`	Extension without the dot	`mp4`
`{file_size}`	Exact size in bytes	`1572864`
`{file_size_mb}`	Exact size in MB, rounded to two decimals	`1.50`
`{file_dir}`	Relative directory beneath the selected folder	`Day-2/Camera-A`

These are deterministic metadata substitutions, not AI classifications. Blober does not inspect an image and infer a client, location, or subject. If Client-A is not present in a selected path, filename, or available variable, a template cannot invent it.

How Template Evaluation Works

Suppose the destination folder is:

Archive

The selected source folder is:

Shoots

and one matching file is:

Shoots/Wedding-2026/Camera-A/DSC_4821.ARW

For that file:

{file_dir} = Wedding-2026/Camera-A
{filename} = DSC_4821.ARW
{filename_no_ext} = DSC_4821
{file_ext} = arw

This template:

originals/{file_dir}/{filename}

produces:

Archive/originals/Wedding-2026/Camera-A/DSC_4821.ARW

This template:

by-type/{file_ext}/{filename}

produces:

Archive/by-type/arw/DSC_4821.ARW

The second rule intentionally discards the source folder hierarchy because it does not contain {file_dir}.

Variables and Filters Solve Different Problems

Filters decide whether a file participates. Variables decide where a participating file lands.

For example:

Include pattern: **/*.{jpg,png}
Exclude pattern: **/thumbnails/**
Template: images/{file_created_date}/{filename}

The include pattern rejects non-image extensions. The exclude pattern removes thumbnails. The path template organizes the remaining files by creation date.

Keeping those concepts separate makes workflows easier to reason about:

Select a source boundary.
Filter the files inside it.
Build the destination path for each match.
Preview.
Copy or move.

Important Metadata Limits

Path templates use metadata supplied by the source provider or filesystem. Not every backend describes dates and sizes in exactly the same way.

A cloud object may expose upload or modification time rather than the camera's original capture time.
Access time may be unavailable or unhelpful on object storage.
Unknown file size becomes NO_SIZE or NO_SIZE_MB when used in a template.
{file_size_mb} creates an exact numeric folder such as 142.53; it does not automatically create human categories such as small or large.
File extensions come from filenames. A misleading extension is not content inspection.

These limits do not make templates unreliable. They define what the rule can truthfully know. Use preview to inspect real metadata from the selected source.

Copy and Move

Use Copy when:

Creating a backup
Testing a new destination structure
Building a second organized library
Keeping the source as the working location

Use Move when:

The destination has been verified
The source should be cleaned up
Files are being retired from expensive active storage

A move deletes the source after successful transfer. For any new path rule, run a representative copy first.

Blober can also reorganize between supported locations on the same provider, but source and destination cannot overlap. Do not place a destination inside the selected source tree. Choose a separate folder, bucket, container, or account.

Detailed Guides in This Series

A Safe First Workflow

Create a new workflow and choose Copy.
Select one folder containing several levels, file types, and sizes.
Choose a separate destination folder.
Enter {file_ext}/{file_dir}/{filename}.
Inspect every example in Preview & Summary.
Save and run the workflow.
Verify the actual destination before scaling up.

That small test reveals exactly how the source provider reports dates, extensions, sizes, and relative folders. Once the output is correct, the same saved workflow can handle a much larger selection.

Download Blober at blober.io to organize files as they move between cloud storage, object storage, local disks, and network drives.

Select Files With Glob Include and Exclude Filters in Blober

Jul 20, 2026

Selection Is the First Filter

Many cloud tools begin with a text rule and expect the user to know the exact path. Blober starts with a visual boundary.

In Source Configuration, click Browse Files and Folders. You can select:

A single file
Several files from different locations
One folder
Several folders
An entire storage root when supported

Use Add More Files and Folders to extend the selection. The selected items appear in the workflow and can be removed individually.

This boundary matters for both performance and clarity. If the problem exists only inside Client-Projects/2026, do not ask the workflow to inspect an unrelated ten-year archive.

Where Advanced Filters Appear

Advanced Filters (Optional) appears when the source selection contains a folder. Filters operate on files Blober finds as it scans that folder.

Directly selecting an individual file is already an exact instruction. Folder selection is what creates the need to decide which children qualify.

Available controls are:

File Types
Created Date Range
File Size
Include Subdirectories
Glob Filters: Include Pattern
Glob Filters: Exclude Pattern

All active criteria must allow the file. A .mov file can match the extension choice and still be rejected because it is older than the date range or sits inside an excluded proxy folder.

What Glob Syntax Means

A glob is a path pattern:

* matches characters within one path level.
** matches recursively across directory levels.
? matches one character.
{jpg,png,webp} matches one of the listed alternatives.

Blober matches glob rules case-insensitively against both the file's full decoded path and its filename.

Examples:

*.jpg

matches a JPEG filename.

**/*.jpg

matches JPEG files recursively at any depth.

**/*.{jpg,jpeg,png,webp}

matches several image extensions recursively.

**/proxies/**

matches everything beneath any folder named proxies.

Include and Exclude Are Separate Fields

The Include Pattern creates the candidate set. The Exclude Pattern removes unwanted matches from it.

For original video files without proxies:

Include Pattern: **/*.{mp4,mov,mxf}
Exclude Pattern: **/{proxy,proxies,cache,temp}/**

Exclusion is evaluated first. A file rejected by the exclude rule stays rejected even when it also matches the include rule.

Type the pattern in the dedicated Exclude field. You do not need a leading !.

Include Subdirectories

The Include Subdirectories checkbox controls whether the scan descends into nested folders.

Disable it when only the selected folder's immediate files matter. Enable it for project trees, archives, and buckets where matches may sit several levels deep.

This is separate from destination organization:

Source Include Subdirectories controls which nested files are found.
Destination {file_dir} controls whether their relative nested path appears in a custom destination template.

A workflow can search recursively but deliberately flatten the destination, or search recursively and preserve every level.

Concrete Recipes

Collect final media exports

Selected folder: Agency
Include: **/*.{mp4,mov,jpg,png}
Exclude: **/{draft,drafts,proxy,proxies,temp}/**

Back up documents but not generated copies

Selected folder: Business
Include: **/*.{pdf,doc,docx,xls,xlsx}
Exclude: **/{cache,temp,autosave}/**

Copy source code without dependencies

Selected folder: Projects
Include: **/*
Exclude: **/node_modules/**

One exclude field accepts one glob expression. Brace alternatives are useful when several folder names follow a consistent convention:

**/{node_modules,dist,build,coverage}/**

Find camera originals

Use the built-in Raw Photos extension choices or include:

**/*.{cr2,nef,arw,dng,raw}

Then pair the filter with:

raw/{file_created_date}/{file_dir}/{filename}

Why This Helps When Storage Has Weak Search

Glob filters are not a permanent search index. They are repeatable selection rules applied while a workflow scans a known scope.

That distinction is useful for object storage:

No separate catalog must stay synchronized.
No full-text or media-analysis service is required.
Rules work from names and paths already present.
The matching files can be copied into a destination layout that is easier to browse next time.

If folder and filename conventions contain useful signals such as Final, RAW, 2026, or Client-A, globs turn those signals into action.

Preview Is the Query Result

After source and destination are complete, Preview & Summary displays:

Active extension, date, size, and glob filters
Matching item count and known total size
Example source paths
Expected destination paths

Treat preview like the result page for your filter query. If expected files are missing, simplify the include rule. If unwanted files remain, refine the exclude rule or select a narrower folder.

Avoid One Giant Pattern

A visual selection plus a short pattern is easier to verify than a single glob encoding every client, year, extension, and exception.

Prefer:

Select: Clients/Acme/2026
Include: **/*.{pdf,xlsx}
Exclude: **/drafts/**

over a long expression that starts at the account root. The smallest understandable scope is usually the safest one.

Next, learn how matched files can be organized by date, type, or size.

Cloud Storage Ingress vs Egress Fees: Which Providers Are Free?

Jun 29, 2026

Ingress is data going into a cloud. Egress is data coming out of a cloud. That sounds simple until you move data between providers: the source sees egress, the destination sees ingress, and both sides may also charge for requests, retrieval, minimum storage duration, or storage-class transitions.

For a migration from AWS S3 to Cloudflare R2, for example, AWS is the egress side and R2 is the ingress side. R2's zero-egress pricing helps after the move, but it does not erase the source provider's charge for reading data out. A direct transfer avoids a relay and a second full local copy; it does not make source egress disappear.

Ingress Is Usually Free, Egress Is Not

Most object-storage providers make network ingress free, or close to it. Uploading data is how they get storage revenue, so they rarely put a bandwidth toll at the door. But writes can still create API, PUT, multipart, replication, or storage-class charges. AWS S3, for example, says S3 costs include request, retrieval, data transfer, transfer acceleration, replication, transform, and query components, and it separately calls out per-request ingest charges for some writes and lifecycle transitions^[1].

Egress is the expensive side. It is what you pay when users download files, an app serves media, a backup restore reads data out, or a migration leaves a provider. Azure lists data transfer in as free, but internet egress from Azure data centers is priced by zone and volume^[2]. Google Cloud Storage lists inbound data transfer as free, while general outbound transfer to the internet is billable after any free-tier allowance^[3].

Use that difference to decide what to optimize for:

Prioritize ingress for backup targets, one-time imports, camera dumps, and upload-heavy workflows.
Prioritize egress for public assets, media delivery, AI training reads, frequent restores, and any data you may need to leave with later.
Prioritize both when the same bucket is active in both directions: teams moving data between clouds, hot archives, shared datasets, or migration staging buckets.

Provider Groups by Transfer Pricing

Pricing changes, and providers define "free" differently. Use this as a map, then verify the current pricing page before committing production data.

Group	Providers	What is free or included	Watch for
Zero-egress or no separate egress line	Cloudflare R2, Wasabi, Synology C2, Impossible Cloud, Telnyx	R2 publishes no egress bandwidth charges^[4]. Wasabi publishes no egress or API request fees, with minimum storage rules^[5]. Synology C2 advertises free data retrieval and no API request or deletion fees^[6]. Impossible Cloud publishes free egress and API calls^[7]. Telnyx markets Cloud Storage as an S3-compatible alternative with zero egress fees^[8].	Operation fees, retrieval processing fees, minimum storage duration, support tiers, and fair-use terms can still matter. Impossible Cloud's docs say monthly egress should not exceed active storage volume under its fair-use policy^[9].
Allowance-based free egress	Backblaze B2, MEGA S4, IDrive e2, Storadera, Rabata Backup	Backblaze B2 includes free egress up to 3x average monthly stored data, then bills additional egress^[10]. MEGA S4 describes up to 5x average monthly stored data as free egress^[11]. IDrive e2 says there are no additional ingress, egress, deletion, or API-request charges, but its page also notes charges beyond free egress limits^[12]. Storadera allows downloads equal to stored amount under fair use^[13]. Rabata Backup has no additional egress fee, with egress expected to stay under 2x stored amount^[14].	These can be excellent for backups and normal restores, but not for unlimited media delivery. Read the multiplier, overage price, and fair-use language.
Bundled outbound transfer	DigitalOcean Spaces, Vultr Object Storage	DigitalOcean Spaces includes 1 TiB outbound transfer, then charges additional transfer^[15]. Vultr Object Storage pricing bundles selected storage with selected bandwidth, then charges for additional transferred data^[16].	Good for predictable app storage when the included bandwidth matches your traffic. Less good if traffic can spike far beyond the bundle.
Paid egress baseline	AWS S3, Azure Blob, Google Cloud Storage	Uploading data is usually the easier side, but outbound data transfer is a major pricing dimension. AWS S3 data transfer pricing has explicit in/out components^[17]. Azure data transfer in is free, while internet egress is priced by region and volume^[18]. Google Cloud Storage inbound data transfer is free, while general outbound transfer is priced by destination and volume^[19].	These platforms can be the right choice for deep ecosystem integration, analytics, identity, compliance, and managed services. Do not pick them on storage price alone if your workload reads heavily.

When Ingress Should Decide

Ingress matters most when your workload mostly writes data and rarely reads it back. Examples:

Nightly backups into object storage.
Camera, drone, or GoPro footage uploaded after shoots.
One-time imports into a long-term archive.
Logs and machine-generated data flowing into cold storage.
Migration into a destination you plan to keep using.

Free ingress is useful, but it is rarely enough by itself. For upload-heavy work, also check the provider's region list, multipart upload limits, request pricing, small-object behavior, and minimum storage duration. A provider with free uploads but a distant region may still be slower and less reliable than a provider close to your source.

If the upload is a one-time migration, the destination's ingress policy is only half the bill. The source provider's egress and read/retrieval charges are usually the part that hurts.

When Egress Should Decide

Egress matters when data leaves storage often. Examples:

Public downloads, app assets, images, and videos.
CDN origin storage.
AI or analytics jobs that repeatedly read training datasets.
Backup restores that are tested often.
Customer exports and data portability.
Any archive you may need to leave later.

This is where zero-egress and allowance-based providers earn attention. Cloudflare R2 is built around no egress bandwidth charges. Backblaze B2's 3x allowance is generous for many backup and archive patterns. Wasabi, Synology C2, Impossible Cloud, and similar providers can make bills easier to predict, but their minimums and fair-use terms decide whether they fit your exact workload.

If you serve a 10 TB media library once a month, a 1x egress fair-use policy may be enough. If users download the same 10 TB library ten times a month, you need true zero egress, a CDN strategy, or a negotiated plan.

When You Need Both

Some workloads are both write-heavy and read-heavy:

Active media teams ingest footage, review it, deliver it, and archive it.
AI teams upload new datasets and read them repeatedly during experiments.
Agencies move client files in and out of storage every week.
Multi-cloud teams use an object store as a staging area between providers.
Backup teams run frequent restore tests instead of treating backups as write-only.

For these, compare the whole transfer loop:

Source egress and read/retrieval fees.
Destination ingress, write, and operation fees.
Storage cost and minimum retention.
Destination egress for future reads, restores, or exits.
Tool cost and whether it adds a relay hop.

The common mistake is optimizing only for the first upload. A cheap destination that charges heavily when you read data back may be fine for a legal archive and wrong for a media workflow.

How Blober Fits

Blober does not charge per GB and does not relay your files through Blober servers. It runs on your machine, reads from the source, and writes to the destination. That keeps the route local and avoids an extra transfer-service bill.

Provider fees still apply. If the source charges egress, you pay the source. If the destination charges PUT requests, retrieval, or storage, you pay the destination. The value of a direct desktop transfer is that it avoids an additional middle service, keeps your credentials local, and lets you choose the storage provider whose ingress and egress model fits the job.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does free ingress mean a migration is free? No. Free ingress only describes the destination side. The source can still charge egress, retrieval, or read requests.

Does zero egress mean there are no storage costs? No. You still pay for storage, operations, retrieval processing if the provider has it, minimum duration, and any add-on services. Zero egress means the provider does not bill outbound bandwidth as a separate line item.

Should backups optimize for ingress or egress? Both, but for different reasons. You write backups often, so ingress performance matters. You restore rarely but urgently, so egress cost and restore speed matter when something goes wrong.

Can a transfer tool avoid egress fees? Not source-provider egress. A tool can avoid an extra relay, subscription, or duplicate local staging step, but the source provider still sees data being read out.

Get Blober

Compare providers on the bill that matters, then move the data directly. Blober connects S3, S3-compatible storage, Azure Blob, Dropbox, Google Drive, GoPro Cloud, and more without per-GB transfer fees.

Download Blober at blober.io

Best S3-Compatible Object Storage Specialists (Independent Clouds)

Jun 28, 2026

Some clouds do one thing: S3-compatible object storage, priced and tuned for it. These are the specialists to compare when you want predictable storage costs without the egress surprises of the hyperscalers. This page lists the independent object-storage clouds, their endpoint formats, and how to connect each one.

This is one category in our complete list of S3-compatible storage providers. Several of these have a preconfigured connector in Blober; the rest use the generic S3-Compatible connector. Confirm endpoints in each provider's dashboard, since regions change over time. The endpoint formats below come from each provider's own documentation, cross-checked against current S3 client references^[1].

Each entry lists an addressing style. Virtual-hosted puts the bucket in the subdomain (https://my-bucket.s3.example.com); path-style puts it in the URL path (https://s3.example.com/my-bucket). Most providers here use virtual-hosted, and Blober picks the style from the endpoint field you fill in. The endpoint formats below show hostnames; in Blober, include https:// in the endpoint field. The endpoint setup notes explain it in full.

Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage

Wasabi is flat-rate object storage with no egress fees and no API request charges, popular for backups and media archives.

Endpoint format: s3.<region>.wasabisys.com (for example s3.wasabisys.com for US East 1, s3.eu-central-1.wasabisys.com).
Regions: Virginia (US East 1 and 2), Texas, Oregon, San Jose, Toronto, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London (two regions), Paris, Milan, Tokyo, Osaka, Singapore, and Sydney^[2].
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: egress and API requests are not separately billed under Wasabi's published pricing terms, but minimum storage rules still matter: a 1 TB minimum and a 90-day minimum storage duration apply^[3]. Blober has a preconfigured Wasabi connector.

Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage

Backblaze B2 is among the lowest per-GB object storage prices, with an S3-compatible API alongside its native one.

Endpoint format: s3.<region>.backblazeb2.com (for example s3.us-west-004.backblazeb2.com).
Regions: US West, US East, and EU Central account regions; copy the exact endpoint from the bucket's Endpoint field, since Backblaze says an account is associated with a single region and S3 endpoints use s3.<region>.backblazeb2.com^[4].
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: free egress is up to 3x average monthly data stored, then additional egress is billed per GB^[5]. Blober has a preconfigured Backblaze B2 connector. See also How to Switch Wasabi to Backblaze B2.

Cloudflare R2

Cloudflare R2 is object storage with zero egress fees, served from Cloudflare's global edge network.

Endpoint format: <account-id>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com.
Regions: buckets are automatically distributed; the region is set to auto.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: Cloudflare documents auto as the S3 API bucket region, with empty and us-east-1 accepted as aliases for compatibility^[6]. R2 has no egress bandwidth charges, though operation and Infrequent Access retrieval charges can still apply^[7]. Blober has a preconfigured Cloudflare R2 connector. See How to Move Azure Blob to Cloudflare R2.

Rabata

Rabata is S3-compatible secure cloud storage with flat, transparent pricing and no API request fees.

Endpoint format: s3.<region>.rabata.io (for example s3.eu-west-2.rabata.io).
Regions: US East (us-east-1, N. Virginia) and EU West (eu-west-2, London); Rabata's quickstart examples use s3.us-east-1.rabata.io, and its billing page maps Hot Storage to us-east-1 and Backup to eu-west-2^[8].
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: two flat-priced tiers. Hot Storage (us-east-1) is $0.01/GB and Backup (eu-west-2) is $49 per 10 TB block, with no API request charges and free ingress. Backup has no egress fees, with egress capped at 2x your stored volume^[9]. Blober has a preconfigured Rabata connector.

Storj

Storj is decentralized cloud storage with an S3-compatible hosted gateway. Data is encrypted and erasure-coded across a global network of nodes.

Endpoint format: gateway.storjshare.io (plus regional gateways gateway.eu1.storjshare.io, gateway.us1.storjshare.io, gateway.ap1.storjshare.io).
Regions: global; set S3-compatible tools to global when they require a region^[10].
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: S3 credentials come from an access grant. Storj's S3 compatibility table calls out partial support for some listing and multipart-copy behavior, so treat advanced S3 semantics as provider-specific and verify workflows that depend on exact listing order, ListMultipartUploads, or UploadPartCopy^[11]. Storj also appears on our decentralized storage page.

IDrive e2

IDrive e2 is low-cost S3-compatible object storage with free egress allowances, aimed at backup and archive.

Endpoint format: <region>.idrivee2-XX.com, where the host is shown in your console (for example q9d9.la12.idrivee2-5.com).
Regions: many across the US, Europe, and Asia-Pacific^[12].
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: the endpoint host is account- and region-specific, so copy it from the IDrive e2 dashboard.

Cubbit DS3

Cubbit DS3 is a geo-distributed, S3-compatible object storage platform with European data residency.

Endpoint format: s3.cubbit.eu, or s3.<tenant>.cubbit.eu for a custom tenant.
Regions: geo-distributed; Cubbit describes DS3 as an S3-compatible object-storage platform that fragments data across its distributed network, so confirm the current region and tenant endpoint in your Cubbit console^[13].
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: if you use a custom tenant endpoint, you must use the tenant-specific host; the generic one will not work in that case^[14].

Impossible Cloud

Impossible Cloud is a European S3-compatible object storage provider with regions in Europe and the US.

Endpoint format: <region>.storage.impossibleapi.net (for example eu-central-2.storage.impossibleapi.net).
Regions: Frankfurt (eu-central-2), Amsterdam (eu-west-1), London (eu-west-2), Paris (eu-west-3), Poznan (eu-east-1), Copenhagen (eu-north-1), and New York (us-east-1)^[15].
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: the public limitations page documents bucket/object limits and object-name conflict rules, not a blanket transfer problem. Browse, upload, download, and copy should be fine for ordinary transfers, but validate workflows that depend on exact AWS-only edge behavior or conflicting folder/object keys^[16].

Seagate Lyve Cloud

Seagate Lyve Cloud is enterprise-grade S3-compatible storage from Seagate.

Endpoint format: s3.<region>.<account>.lyve.seagate.com, where the account name is part of the host (for example s3.us-west-1.global.lyve.seagate.com).
Regions: US West (California), EU West (Ireland), and more.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: the distinctive setup detail is the account-specific host: copy the S3 endpoint from Lyve Cloud for your account and region instead of treating lyve.seagate.com as a generic endpoint^[17].

Synology C2 Object Storage

Synology C2 is S3-compatible object storage from the NAS maker, with no API request fees, download fees, or deletion penalties.

Endpoint format: <region>.s3.synologyc2.net (for example eu-001.s3.synologyc2.net, us-001.s3.synologyc2.net).
Regions: Europe and the US; Synology documents these data centers on its object-storage overview and exposes C2 Object Storage through C2 OneStorage pricing^[18].
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: no charge for egress or API requests is listed for C2 Object Storage under C2 OneStorage pricing^[19]. It is a natural pairing for Synology NAS owners who want an off-site S3 copy.

MEGA S4 Object Storage

MEGA S4 is an S3-compatible object store with regional endpoints and a published free-egress allowance.

Endpoint format: s3.<region>.megas4.com (for example s3.eu-amsterdam.megas4.com).
Regions: Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Paris, Barcelona, Montreal, Vancouver, Tokyo^[20].
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: MEGA says buckets are not restricted to one region; pick the endpoint closest to your users or workloads. MEGA's object-storage page describes up to 5x average monthly stored data as free egress, so check the current plan terms before using it for high-volume delivery^[21].

Tebi

Tebi is a geo-distributed S3-compatible object store with a global endpoint and optional regional endpoints.

Endpoint format: s3.tebi.io.
Regions: global endpoint via GeoDNS, plus Germany, US East, US West, and Singapore regional S3 endpoints^[22].
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: Tebi storage classes control where data is physically stored and how many copies are kept; use the console settings for current placement and performance choices^[23].

Storadera

Storadera is a European S3-compatible object storage provider with flat, simple pricing.

Endpoint format: <region>.s3.storadera.com (for example eu-east-1.s3.storadera.com).
Regions: Europe; confirm the current regional endpoint in the console.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: Storadera publishes no upload charges and no download charges under fair use, where the allowed monthly download amount equals the stored amount^[24].

Telnyx Cloud Storage

Telnyx Cloud Storage is S3-compatible object storage from the communications platform Telnyx.

Endpoint format: <region>.telnyxcloudstorage.com (for example us-central-1.telnyxcloudstorage.com).
Regions: US Central, US East, US West, and EU Central^[25].
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: Telnyx billing is based on stored bytes and API operation counts; its docs list separate US and EU storage/operation pricing^[26].

Tigris

Tigris is a globally distributed S3-compatible object store (built with Fly.io) that routes through a single endpoint.

Endpoint format: t3.storage.dev.
Regions: San Jose, Chicago, Ashburn, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, Singapore, Tokyo. Set the region to auto; the same page also lists additional Fly.io locations, so check the docs for the current list^[27].
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: buckets can be global, multi-region, dual-region, or single-region; the single endpoint handles routing.

FileLu S5

FileLu S5 is an S3-compatible object store with a single global endpoint and regional options.

Endpoint format: s5lu.com (global), with us.s5lu.com, eu.s5lu.com, ap.s5lu.com, and me.s5lu.com for regions.
Regions: Global, US East, EU Central, AP Southeast, ME Central^[28].
Addressing: not explicitly documented; start with path-style in the generic connector unless your FileLu client configuration confirms virtual-hosted support.
Notes: predictable pricing with no separate transfer or API charges.

Petabox

Petabox is S3-compatible object storage with regions across several continents and free ingress.

Endpoint format: s3.<region>.petabox.io (for example s3.us-east-1.petabox.io), or s3.petabox.io for US East.
Regions: Virginia, Frankfurt, Singapore, Bahrain, Sao Paulo.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: confirm the regional endpoint in the Petabox console^[29].

Zata

Zata is an S3-compatible object storage gateway with a focus on South Asia.

Endpoint format: idr01.zata.ai.
Regions: Indore, India (South Asia endpoint).
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: confirm the endpoint in the Zata console^[30].

Filebase

Filebase is an S3-compatible gateway that stores objects on decentralized networks (IPFS and others) behind a familiar S3 API.

Endpoint format: s3.filebase.io.
Regions: single global endpoint; Filebase uses region auto for SigV4 signing.
Addressing: both path-style (https://s3.filebase.io/<bucket>/<key>) and virtual-hosted (https://<bucket>.s3.filebase.io/<key>) are supported^[31].
Notes: public-bucket reads should use the virtual-hosted URL. Filebase also appears on our decentralized storage page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which S3-compatible specialist has no egress fees? Several limit or remove separate egress charges, but the details differ. Cloudflare R2, Wasabi, Synology C2, Impossible Cloud, and Telnyx publish zero-egress or no-separate-egress positioning; Backblaze B2 includes free egress up to 3x average monthly stored data; MEGA S4 publishes up to 5x; Rabata Backup and Storadera use fair-use caps. See Cloud Storage Ingress vs Egress Fees for the split.

Are these as reliable as AWS S3? Durability and availability are each provider's own design, and many publish strong durability figures. Compatibility refers to the API, not to a guarantee of identical reliability, so check the provider's SLA for your use case.

Can I migrate from AWS S3 to one of these specialists? Yes. Because they share the core S3 API, Blober copies directly from S3 to the specialist by setting the source and destination endpoints. Validate provider-specific behavior if you rely on advanced S3 features.

Which preconfigured connectors does Blober include? For this category, Wasabi, Backblaze B2, Cloudflare R2, and Rabata are preconfigured. The rest connect through the generic S3-Compatible connector.

Get Blober

Connect to any S3-compatible specialist by URL and move data in or out directly, without filling your local disk.

Download Blober at blober.io

S3-Compatible Cloud Object Storage Providers (Hyperscalers and Regional Clouds)

Jun 28, 2026

The large platform clouds all run object storage, and most expose an Amazon S3-compatible endpoint alongside their native API. That means you can point an S3 client at Alibaba, Tencent, Huawei, IBM, Oracle, Google, Yandex, and many regional clouds by changing the endpoint URL and keys. This page lists the cloud S3-compatible services, their endpoint formats, and how to connect each one.

This is one category in our complete list of S3-compatible storage providers. For independent object-storage clouds, hosting platforms, self-hosted servers, enterprise appliances, and decentralized storage, see the other category pages linked at the end.

These services are intended to connect through Blober's generic S3-Compatible connector when they support the common S3 operations Blober uses. Paste the endpoint and keys, then browse to confirm. Confirm the exact endpoint in each provider's console, since regions and hostnames change over time. The endpoint formats below come from each provider's own documentation, cross-checked against current S3 client references^[1].

Each entry notes an addressing style. Virtual-hosted puts the bucket in the subdomain (https://my-bucket.s3.example.com); path-style puts it in the URL path (https://s3.example.com/my-bucket). Almost every cloud here uses virtual-hosted. The endpoint formats below show hostnames; in Blober, include https:// in the endpoint field. The endpoint setup notes explain how Blober picks the right one.

Alibaba Cloud OSS (Object Storage Service)

Alibaba Cloud Object Storage Service, formerly Aliyun OSS, is the dominant object store in China and across Alibaba's global regions.

Endpoint format: oss-<region>.aliyuncs.com (for example oss-cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com, oss-us-east-1.aliyuncs.com, oss-eu-central-1.aliyuncs.com).
Regions: dozens across mainland China, plus Singapore, Tokyo, Frankfurt, London, Dubai, Silicon Valley, and Virginia.
Addressing: virtual-hosted (bucket in subdomain).
Notes: OSS offers Standard, Infrequent Access, Archive, and Cold Archive tiers. Use the matching regional endpoint for your bucket^[2].

Tencent Cloud COS (Cloud Object Storage)

Tencent Cloud Object Storage is the object store behind much of China's app ecosystem, with a global region footprint.

Endpoint format: cos.<region>.myqcloud.com (for example cos.ap-guangzhou.myqcloud.com, cos.ap-singapore.myqcloud.com, cos.na-ashburn.myqcloud.com).
Regions: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Hong Kong, Singapore, Mumbai, Seoul, Bangkok, Tokyo, Silicon Valley, Virginia, Toronto, Frankfurt.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: there is also a Global Acceleration endpoint (cos.accelerate.myqcloud.com). Standard, Infrequent Access, and Archive tiers are available^[3].

Huawei Cloud OBS (Object Storage Service)

Huawei Cloud OBS is a high-capacity object store with an S3-compatible interface, used widely across Asia, Latin America, and EMEA.

Endpoint format: obs.<region>.myhuaweicloud.com (for example obs.af-south-1.myhuaweicloud.com, obs.ap-southeast-3.myhuaweicloud.com).
Regions: Johannesburg, Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, plus Latin America (Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Lima) and Moscow.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: OBS underpins several rebranded regional clouds (Open Telekom Cloud and SberCloud, listed below), so the connection pattern is similar^[4].

IBM Cloud Object Storage (COS)

IBM Cloud Object Storage, descended from Cleversafe, disperses data across locations and is accessed through an S3-compatible API. It is also sold as on-premises software.

Endpoint format: s3.<region>.cloud-object-storage.appdomain.cloud (for example s3.us-east.cloud-object-storage.appdomain.cloud, s3.eu-de.cloud-object-storage.appdomain.cloud).
Regions: US East and South, EU (Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Milan), Great Britain, plus single-site endpoints in many cities. Private endpoints exist for in-cloud traffic.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: IBM COS supports IAM API-key authentication in addition to HMAC access keys. Storage classes include Standard, Vault, Cold Vault, and Smart Tier^[5].

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Object Storage

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Object Storage offers an Amazon S3 Compatibility API in front of its native object store.

Endpoint format: <namespace>.compat.objectstorage.<region>.oci.customer-oci.com for path-style, or <bucket>.vhcompat.objectstorage.<region>.oci.customer-oci.com for virtual-hosted. The <namespace> is your tenancy's unique Object Storage namespace.
Regions: Ashburn, Phoenix, Frankfurt, London, Tokyo, and the rest of OCI's global regions.
Addressing: both path and virtual-hosted are supported.
Notes: authenticate with a Customer Secret Key (an access key and secret pair). If your tool cannot set the region identifier, set it to us-east-1 or leave it blank to use your home region. SigV2 is not supported^[6].

Google Cloud Storage (XML / S3 Interoperability)

Google Cloud Storage is not S3 by default, but its XML API has an S3-compatible interoperability mode that works with HMAC keys.

Endpoint format: storage.googleapis.com.
Regions: global; the endpoint is single, and the bucket's location is set when you create it.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: create an HMAC key for a service account to get an access key and secret. Object versioning listing and a few advanced behaviors differ from AWS, so treat GCS as S3-compatible for the common operations (browse, upload, download, copy) rather than a perfect clone^[7].

Yandex Object Storage

Yandex Cloud's object storage is S3-compatible and popular across Russia and the CIS.

Endpoint format: storage.yandexcloud.net.
Regions: ru-central1 and its availability zones; the endpoint is single.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: Standard (hot) and Cold storage classes are available. Use static access keys generated for a service account^[8].

VK Cloud Object Storage (formerly Mail.ru Cloud Solutions)

VK Cloud, previously Mail.ru Cloud Solutions, runs Hotbox and Icebox object storage tiers behind an S3-compatible endpoint.

Endpoint format: hb.bizmrg.com (Hotbox) and ib.bizmrg.com (Icebox), with newer hb.<region>.vkcs.cloud hosts.
Regions: Moscow.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: Hotbox is the hot tier, Icebox the cold tier. Confirm the current endpoint in the VK Cloud console.

Baidu AI Cloud BOS (Baidu Object Storage)

Baidu Object Storage provides an S3-compatible interface for one of China's major clouds.

Endpoint format: s3.<region>.bcebos.com (for example s3.bj.bcebos.com for Beijing, s3.gz.bcebos.com for Guangzhou).
Regions: Beijing, Baoding, Suzhou, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and more.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: Standard, Infrequent Access, Cold, and Archive tiers are available.

JD Cloud Object Storage (OSS)

JD Cloud, the cloud arm of JD.com, exposes an S3-compatible object storage service.

Endpoint format: s3.<region>.jdcloud-oss.com (for example s3.cn-north-1.jdcloud-oss.com).
Regions: North China, East China, and South China.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: confirm the regional endpoint in the JD Cloud console.

China Mobile Ecloud EOS (Elastic Object Storage)

China Mobile's Ecloud Elastic Object Storage is a large, region-dense S3-compatible service across mainland China.

Endpoint format: eos-<city>-1.cmecloud.cn (for example eos-wuxi-1.cmecloud.cn, eos-beijing-1.cmecloud.cn).
Regions: dozens, from Suzhou and Shanghai to Chengdu, Guiyang, and Xian.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: the location constraint must match the endpoint when creating buckets^[9].

Kingsoft Cloud KS3

Kingsoft Cloud Standard Storage Service (KS3) is an S3-compatible object store widely used in China.

Endpoint format: ks3-<region>.ksyuncloud.com or ks3-<region>.ksyun.com (for example ks3-cn-beijing.ksyuncloud.com).
Regions: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and international points.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: confirm the current endpoint host in the Kingsoft console.

China Telecom CTYun OOS

China Telecom's CTYun (Tianyi Cloud) Object-Oriented Storage is an S3-compatible service across China Telecom's regions.

Endpoint format: oos-<region>.ctyunapi.cn (for example oos-sccd.ctyunapi.cn).
Regions: many across mainland China.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: confirm the regional endpoint in the CTYun console.

NAVER Cloud Object Storage

NAVER Cloud Platform, South Korea's major cloud, runs an S3-compatible object storage service.

Endpoint format: <region>.object.ncloudstorage.com (for example kr.object.ncloudstorage.com).
Regions: Korea, plus other NAVER Cloud regions.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: generate API keys in the NAVER Cloud console.

Open Telekom Cloud OBS

Open Telekom Cloud, operated by T-Systems on Huawei technology, exposes Huawei OBS under its own endpoints.

Endpoint format: obs.<region>.otc.t-systems.com (for example obs.eu-de.otc.t-systems.com).
Regions: Germany (Biere, Magdeburg), the Netherlands, and Switzerland.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: the OBS lineage means it behaves like Huawei OBS, with European data residency.

SberCloud OBS

SberCloud Advanced (Cloud.ru) runs object storage on Huawei OBS technology with Russian endpoints.

Endpoint format: obs.<region>.hc.sbercloud.ru (for example obs.ru-moscow-1.hc.sbercloud.ru).
Regions: Moscow.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: behaves like Huawei OBS with Russian data residency.

Netease NOS (Netease Object Storage)

Netease Object Storage offers an S3-compatible interface used by Netease's services and third parties.

Endpoint format: regional NOS endpoints (for example nos-eastchina1.126.net).
Regions: several across China.
Addressing: virtual-hosted (path-style addressing is disabled by the provider).
Notes: confirm the exact endpoint in the Netease console.

A Note on Microsoft Azure Blob Storage

Azure Blob Storage is the obvious omission here, and it is deliberate. Azure Blob uses its own API, not the S3 API, so it is not S3-compatible in the drop-in sense. The concepts line up (a container maps to a bucket, a blob to an object), but an S3 client cannot talk to Azure Blob without a translation gateway. If you need to move data between S3 and Azure, Blober bridges the two directly. See How to Transfer AWS S3 to Azure Blob.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Google Cloud Storage S3-compatible? Through its XML API interoperability mode, yes, for the common operations. You create an HMAC key and point your S3 client at storage.googleapis.com. A few advanced behaviors differ from AWS S3.

Is Alibaba OSS the same as AWS S3? OSS speaks the S3 API, so S3 tools work against it by changing the endpoint and keys. It is run by Alibaba, not Amazon, and its tier names and some features are its own.

Why do Open Telekom Cloud and SberCloud look like Huawei OBS? Because they are built on Huawei OBS technology and rebranded for their regions. The S3-compatible connection pattern is the same, with different endpoints and data residency.

Can Blober move data from one cloud's object storage to another? Yes. Point Blober at a source endpoint and a destination endpoint and it copies between them directly for normal object transfers. Provider-specific S3 feature gaps can still matter for advanced workflows.

Get Blober

Connect to any cloud's S3-compatible object storage by URL and move data between providers directly, without filling your local disk.

Download Blober at blober.io

S3-Compatible Object Storage from Web Hosts and VPS Providers

Jun 28, 2026

If you already rent servers from a hosting or VPS company, there is a good chance they also sell S3-compatible object storage right next to your droplets, instances, or dedicated boxes. Keeping storage with your compute reduces latency and often avoids cross-provider egress. This page lists the hosting and VPS object-storage services, their endpoint formats, and how to connect each one.

This is one category in our complete list of S3-compatible storage providers. DigitalOcean Spaces has a preconfigured connector in Blober; the rest use the generic S3-Compatible connector. Confirm endpoints in each provider's console, since regions change over time. The endpoint formats below come from each provider's own documentation, cross-checked against current S3 client references^[1].

Each entry notes an addressing style. Virtual-hosted puts the bucket in the subdomain (https://my-bucket.s3.example.com); path-style puts it in the URL path (https://s3.example.com/my-bucket). Almost every host here uses virtual-hosted. The endpoint formats below show hostnames; in Blober, include https:// in the endpoint field. The endpoint setup notes explain how Blober picks the right one.

DigitalOcean Spaces

DigitalOcean Spaces is S3-compatible object storage with a built-in CDN, sold alongside DigitalOcean droplets.

Endpoint format: <region>.digitaloceanspaces.com (for example nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com, fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com).
Regions: NYC3, SFO2, SFO3, AMS3, FRA1, SGP1, SYD1, BLR1, ATL1, LON1, TOR1, and more.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: Blober has a preconfigured DigitalOcean Spaces connector. Spaces has no built-in cross-region replication; see DigitalOcean Spaces Regions, Replication, and Backup^[2].

Linode / Akamai Object Storage

Linode (now part of Akamai) offers S3-compatible object storage across many global regions.

Endpoint format: <region>.linodeobjects.com (for example us-east-1.linodeobjects.com, eu-central-1.linodeobjects.com).
Regions: Newark, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Seattle, Washington DC, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Stockholm, Chennai, Jakarta, Osaka, Singapore, Sao Paulo, Melbourne.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: one of the widest region footprints among VPS providers^[3].

Vultr Object Storage

Vultr Object Storage is S3-compatible storage with a CDN, billed with generous included transfer.

Endpoint format: <region>.vultrobjects.com (for example ewr1.vultrobjects.com, ams1.vultrobjects.com).
Regions: New Jersey, Silicon Valley, Amsterdam, Singapore, Bangalore, Delhi, and more.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: includes an archival storage tier with lifecycle policies. Confirm the regional host in the Vultr console^[4].

OVHcloud Object Storage

OVHcloud offers S3-compatible object storage across its European, North American, and Asia-Pacific regions.

Endpoint format: s3.<region>.io.cloud.ovh.net (for example s3.gra.io.cloud.ovh.net for Gravelines, s3.de.io.cloud.ovh.net for Frankfurt). US regions use io.cloud.ovh.us.
Regions: Gravelines, Roubaix, Strasbourg, Paris, Frankfurt, London, Warsaw, Beauharnois, Toronto, Singapore, Sydney, Mumbai, plus US (Virginia, Oregon) and a cold archive region.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: storage classes include Standard, High Performance, Standard Infrequent Access, and archive tiers^[5].

Hetzner Object Storage

Hetzner Object Storage is low-cost S3-compatible storage in Hetzner's European data centers.

Endpoint format: <region>.your-objectstorage.com (for example hel1.your-objectstorage.com, fsn1.your-objectstorage.com, nbg1.your-objectstorage.com).
Regions: Helsinki, Falkenstein, Nuremberg.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: a popular budget option for European workloads^[6].

Scaleway Object Storage

Scaleway Object Storage is S3-compatible storage from the French cloud provider, with a Glacier cold tier.

Endpoint format: s3.<region>.scw.cloud (for example s3.nl-ams.scw.cloud, s3.fr-par.scw.cloud, s3.pl-waw.scw.cloud).
Regions: Amsterdam, Paris, Warsaw.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: the GLACIER storage class uploads directly to Scaleway's cold tier; restore before reading^[7].

Contabo Object Storage

Contabo Object Storage is budget S3-compatible storage (built on Ceph) with included transfer.

Endpoint format: <region>.contabostorage.com (for example eu2.contabostorage.com, usc1.contabostorage.com, sin1.contabostorage.com).
Regions: Europe, United States, and Asia.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: unlimited inbound and generous outbound transfer are included in the flat monthly rate. Confirm your exact endpoint in the Contabo console^[8].

Exoscale SOS (Simple Object Storage)

Exoscale Simple Object Storage is S3-compatible storage from the Swiss cloud provider, with European zones.

Endpoint format: sos-<zone>.exo.io (for example sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io, sos-de-fra-1.exo.io).
Regions: Geneva, Zurich, Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna, Sofia.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: strong fit for Swiss and EU data residency^[9].

UpCloud Object Storage

UpCloud Object Storage is S3-compatible storage from the Finnish cloud provider.

Endpoint format: <region>.upcloudobjects.com (the exact host is shown in your console).
Regions: several across Europe, the US, and Asia-Pacific.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: confirm the per-region endpoint host in the UpCloud control panel.

IONOS Cloud S3 Object Storage

IONOS S3 Object Storage is S3-compatible storage from the German provider IONOS.

Endpoint format: s3-<region>.ionoscloud.com (for example s3-eu-central-1.ionoscloud.com).
Regions: Frankfurt, Berlin, Logrono (Spain), Lenexa (USA).
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: generate keys in the Data Center Designer under the Object Storage Key Manager^[10].

Gcore Object Storage

Gcore Object Storage is S3-compatible storage from Gcore, with a wide global edge footprint.

Endpoint format: regional S3 endpoint shown in the Gcore console (for example a s3.<region> style host).
Regions: many across Europe, the Americas, Asia, and the Middle East.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: confirm the current endpoint host for your region in the Gcore console.

DreamHost DreamObjects

DreamObjects is DreamHost's S3-compatible object storage, built on Ceph.

Endpoint format: objects-<region>.dream.io (for example objects-us-east-1.dream.io).
Regions: US.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: leave the region blank and set the endpoint, as with other Ceph-based services^[11].

RackCorp Object Storage

RackCorp Object Storage is an S3-compatible platform with anycast and many regional endpoints.

Endpoint format: <region>.s3.rackcorp.com (for example au-nsw.s3.rackcorp.com), or s3.rackcorp.com for the global anycast endpoint.
Regions: Australia (several), plus Asia, Europe, North America, and New Zealand.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: useful where other providers lack a nearby region^[12].

cloudscale.ch

cloudscale.ch is a Swiss provider with S3-compatible object storage and strong data-residency guarantees.

Endpoint format: objects.<region>.cloudscale.ch (for example objects.rma.cloudscale.ch, objects.lpg.cloudscale.ch).
Regions: Rumlang and Lupfig, Switzerland.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: all data stays in Switzerland^[13].

Fuga Cloud Object Store

Fuga Cloud is a European OpenStack-based provider with an S3-compatible object store.

Endpoint format: core.fuga.cloud.
Regions: the Netherlands.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: confirm the endpoint and any newer hosts in the Fuga console.

Infomaniak Public Cloud

Infomaniak, a Swiss provider, offers S3-compatible object storage on its OpenStack-based Public Cloud.

Endpoint format: s3.<region>.infomaniak.cloud (for example s3.pub1.infomaniak.cloud).
Regions: Switzerland.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: Swiss data residency and renewable-energy hosting.

Outscale OOS (Object Storage)

OUTSCALE, a Dassault Systemes brand, offers enterprise-grade S3-compatible object storage.

Endpoint format: oos.<region>.outscale.com (for example oos.eu-west-2.outscale.com).
Regions: Paris, New Jersey, California, SecNumCloud (Paris), Tokyo.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: includes a SecNumCloud-qualified region for sensitive French workloads^[14].

Liara Object Storage

Liara is an Iranian platform with S3-compatible object storage.

Endpoint format: storage.iran.liara.space.
Regions: Iran.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: leave the region blank and set the endpoint^[15].

ArvanCloud Object Storage

ArvanCloud offers S3-compatible object storage with regions in Iran.

Endpoint format: s3.<region>.arvanstorage.ir (for example s3.ir-thr-at1.arvanstorage.ir), also seen as s3.arvanstorage.com.
Regions: Tehran, Tabriz.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: confirm the current endpoint host in the ArvanCloud console^[16].

BizflyCloud Simple Storage

Bizfly Cloud Simple Storage is an S3-compatible service with regions in Vietnam.

Endpoint format: <region>.ss.bfcplatform.vn (hn.ss.bfcplatform.vn for Hanoi, hcm.ss.bfcplatform.vn for Ho Chi Minh City).
Regions: Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: match the region to the endpoint^[17].

Selectel and Servercore Object Storage

Selectel and its international brand Servercore offer S3-compatible object storage with triple-redundant storage.

Endpoint format: s3.<region>.storage.selcloud.ru (for example s3.ru-1.storage.selcloud.ru), plus s3.<region>.srvstorage.uz and s3.<region>.srvstorage.kz for Servercore in Central Asia.
Regions: St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan.
Addressing: virtual-hosted (the provider recommends vHosted, not path-style).
Notes: confirm the endpoint for your region in the console^[18].

Fastly Object Storage

Fastly Object Storage is S3-compatible storage from the edge-cloud provider Fastly, with mandatory server-side encryption.

Endpoint format: <region>.object.fastlystorage.app (for example us-east.object.fastlystorage.app).
Regions: US East, US West, US Central, EU Central, EU South, EU West, UK East, JP Central, AU East.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: server-side encryption is always on^[19].

Leaseweb Object Storage

Leaseweb offers S3-compatible object storage alongside its dedicated and cloud hosting.

Endpoint format: the regional S3 endpoint shown in the Leaseweb customer portal.
Regions: Europe, the US, and Asia-Pacific.
Addressing: virtual-hosted.
Notes: confirm the exact endpoint host in the Leaseweb portal.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why use a host's object storage instead of a specialist? Keeping storage with your compute reduces latency and often avoids cross-provider egress charges. If you already run servers at OVHcloud, Hetzner, or Vultr, their object storage is the path of least resistance.

Do these all use the AWS S3 API? Yes. Every provider here exposes an S3-compatible endpoint, so the same S3 tools and SDKs work by changing the endpoint and keys.

Can I move data from DigitalOcean Spaces to another host's object storage? Yes. Blober copies directly between S3 endpoints that support the normal object operations it uses. Set the source and destination and it transfers without staging a full copy on your disk.

Which of these connect to Blober without setup? DigitalOcean Spaces has a preconfigured connector. Every other provider on this page uses the generic S3-Compatible connector: paste the endpoint and keys.

Get Blober

Connect to any host's S3-compatible object storage by URL and move data between providers directly, without filling your local disk.

Download Blober at blober.io

S3-Compatible Storage Providers: The Complete List (90+ Providers)

Jun 28, 2026

This is a practical list of well-known S3-compatible storage providers. If a service speaks the Amazon S3 API, the same tools, SDKs, and apps that work with AWS S3 usually work with it by changing two things: the endpoint URL and the access keys. That portability is why so many S3-compatible services exist, from global clouds to storage you run on your own hardware.

We have grouped them into six categories so the list stays usable. Each provider below links to a detailed entry with its endpoint format, regions, addressing style, and notes. Whatever S3-compatible store you are searching for, there is a good chance it is on this page.

Every endpoint format here comes from the provider's own documentation, cross-checked against current S3 client references and the per-provider sources in the category pages^[1]. The tables show endpoint hostnames for readability. In Blober, enter the full URL with https:// unless you are connecting to a local/self-hosted server that explicitly uses http://.

What S3-Compatible Means Here

S3-compatible means the service exposes the same HTTP API as Amazon S3, so an S3 client points at it by URL. It does not mean the service is run by Amazon, and it does not promise every advanced feature is identical. For the full explanation, see What S3-Compatible Really Means.

For common S3 operations, the custom endpoint is the portability layer. Once your tool can set that endpoint, the provider becomes much easier to swap.

How Blober Connects to Any of These

Blober has preconfigured connectors for the most common S3 services (Amazon S3, Wasabi, Cloudflare R2, Backblaze B2, DigitalOcean Spaces, and Rabata). For everything else on this list, Blober has a single generic S3-Compatible connector: you paste the endpoint URL and keys, and Blober can use the common browse, upload, download, copy, and delete operations when the provider implements them.

That connector covers both addressing styles (bucket in the subdomain, or bucket in the path), single-bucket or full-account access, a custom region, and a free-text storage class, so it reaches the long tail of providers, self-hosted servers, and local test setups. You point Blober at a source and a destination and it copies between them directly, without staging a full copy on your disk.

The Six Categories

Category	What is in it	Open the list
Cloud object storage	S3 services from large platform clouds (Alibaba, Tencent, Huawei, IBM, Oracle, Google, Yandex, and more)	Cloud providers
Object storage specialists	Independent clouds built only for object storage (Wasabi, Backblaze, Storj, IDrive e2, Cubbit, and more)	Specialists
Hosting and VPS object storage	S3 storage bundled with a hosting or VPS platform (DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr, OVHcloud, Hetzner, Scaleway, and more)	Hosting and VPS
Self-hosted and open source	S3 servers you run yourself (MinIO, Ceph, SeaweedFS, Garage, and more)	Self-hosted
Enterprise and on-premises	Appliances and enterprise platforms (NetApp StorageGRID, Dell ECS, Cloudian, Pure FlashBlade, and more)	Enterprise
Decentralized and Web3	Object storage backed by decentralized networks (Storj, Filebase, 4everland, and more)	Decentralized

Master Index of S3-Compatible Providers

Every provider, alphabetical, with its endpoint format. The endpoint is the host you give your S3 client; the bucket name is then added either as a subdomain or in the path. Replace any bracketed value (<region>, <account>, <namespace>) with your own. A check in the last column means Blober ships a preconfigured connector; everything else uses the generic S3-Compatible connector. When you enter one of these in Blober, include the URL scheme, for example https://s3.example.com.

Provider	Endpoint format	Preconfigured
Alibaba Cloud OSS	`oss-<region>.aliyuncs.com`
Amazon S3	`s3.<region>.amazonaws.com`	Yes
Apache Ozone	self-hosted S3 Gateway
ArvanCloud	`s3.<region>.arvanstorage.ir`
Backblaze B2	`s3.<region>.backblazeb2.com`	Yes
Baidu AI Cloud BOS	`s3.<region>.bcebos.com`
BizflyCloud	`<region>.ss.bfcplatform.vn`
Ceph (RADOS Gateway)	self-hosted
China Mobile Ecloud EOS	`eos-<city>-1.cmecloud.cn`
China Telecom CTYun OOS	`oos-<region>.ctyunapi.cn`
Cloudflare R2	`<account>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com`	Yes
Cloudian HyperStore	appliance or software
cloudscale.ch	`objects.<region>.cloudscale.ch`
Contabo Object Storage	`<region>.contabostorage.com`
Cubbit DS3	`s3.cubbit.eu`
DataCore Swarm	on-premises
Dell ECS / ObjectScale	on-premises
DigitalOcean Spaces	`<region>.digitaloceanspaces.com`	Yes
DreamHost DreamObjects	`objects-<region>.dream.io`
Exaba	self-hosted
Exoscale SOS	`sos-<zone>.exo.io`
Fastly Object Storage	`<region>.object.fastlystorage.app`
FileLu S5	`s5lu.com`
Filebase	`s3.filebase.io`
4everland	`endpoint.4everland.co`
Fuga Cloud Object Store	`core.fuga.cloud`
Garage	self-hosted
Gcore Object Storage	regional endpoint
Google Cloud Storage	`storage.googleapis.com`
Hitachi Content Platform	on-premises
Hetzner Object Storage	`<region>.your-objectstorage.com`
Huawei Cloud OBS	`obs.<region>.myhuaweicloud.com`
IBM Cloud Object Storage	`s3.<region>.cloud-object-storage.appdomain.cloud`
IDrive e2	`<region>.idrivee2-XX.com`
Impossible Cloud	`<region>.storage.impossibleapi.net`
Infomaniak Public Cloud	`s3.<region>.infomaniak.cloud`
Intercolo Object Storage	`de-fra.i3storage.com`
IONOS Cloud S3	`s3-<region>.ionoscloud.com`
JD Cloud Object Storage	`s3.<region>.jdcloud-oss.com`
Kingsoft Cloud KS3	`ks3-<region>.ksyuncloud.com`
Leaseweb Object Storage	regional endpoint
Leviia	`s3.leviia.com`
Liara	`storage.iran.liara.space`
Linode / Akamai	`<region>.linodeobjects.com`
MEGA S4	`s3.<region>.s4.mega.io`
MinIO	self-hosted
NAVER Cloud Object Storage	`<region>.object.ncloudstorage.com`
NetApp StorageGRID	on-premises
NetApp ONTAP S3	on-premises
Netease NOS	`nos-<region>.126.net`
Nutanix Objects	on-premises
OpenIO	self-hosted
OpenStack Swift (s3api)	self-hosted
Open Telekom Cloud OBS	`obs.<region>.otc.t-systems.com`
Oracle Cloud OCI	`<namespace>.compat.objectstorage.<region>.oci.customer-oci.com`
Outscale OOS	`oos.<region>.outscale.com`
OVHcloud Object Storage	`s3.<region>.io.cloud.ovh.net`
Petabox	`s3.<region>.petabox.io`
Pure Storage FlashBlade	on-premises
Qiniu Kodo	`s3-<region>.qiniucs.com`
Quantum ActiveScale	on-premises
Rabata	`s3.<region>.rabata.io`	Yes
RackCorp	`<region>.s3.rackcorp.com`
Riak CS	self-hosted
Scality RING / ARTESCA	on-premises
Scaleway Object Storage	`s3.<region>.scw.cloud`
Seagate Lyve Cloud	`s3.<region>.<account>.lyve.seagate.com`
SeaweedFS	self-hosted
Selectel	`s3.<region>.storage.selcloud.ru`
Servercore	`s3.<region>.storage.selcloud.ru`
SberCloud OBS	`obs.<region>.hc.sbercloud.ru`
Spectra Logic BlackPearl	on-premises
Storadera	`<region>.s3.storadera.com`
Storj	`gateway.storjshare.io`
Synology C2	`<region>.s3.synologyc2.net`
Tebi	`s3.tebi.io`
Telnyx Cloud Storage	`<region>.telnyxcloudstorage.com`
Tencent Cloud COS	`cos.<region>.myqcloud.com`
Tigris	`t3.storage.dev`
UpCloud Object Storage	`<region>.upcloudobjects.com`
US3 (UCloud)	`s3-<region>.ufileos.com`
VAST Data	on-premises
Versity Gateway	self-hosted
VK Cloud Object Storage	`hb.bizmrg.com`
Vultr Object Storage	`<region>.vultrobjects.com`
Wasabi	`s3.<region>.wasabisys.com`	Yes
Yandex Object Storage	`storage.yandexcloud.net`
Zadara	`<vsa-id>.zadarazios.com`
Zata	`idr01.zata.ai`

This index is a starting point. Providers add regions and change hostnames over time, so always confirm the exact endpoint in your provider's console before you connect. The detailed group articles explain each provider's regions, addressing style (path or subdomain), and any quirks.

Subdomain vs Path: The One Setting That Trips People Up

S3 supports two ways of putting the bucket name into the request:

Virtual-hosted (bucket in the subdomain): https://my-bucket.s3.example.com. This is the AWS default and what most hosted providers expect.
Path-style (bucket in the path): https://s3.example.com/my-bucket. This is what MinIO, Ceph, and most self-hosted servers expect.

If browsing or uploads fail against a self-hosted server, switch to path-style. In Blober, you pick the style implicitly by which endpoint field you fill in. Everything else is the same.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many S3-compatible storage providers are there? There is no official registry. This page indexes more than ninety well-known hosted providers, hosting platforms, self-hosted servers, enterprise systems, and decentralized gateways across six categories.

Is Azure Blob Storage S3-compatible? Not natively. Azure Blob uses its own API. The concepts map across (a container is like a bucket, a blob like an object), but an S3 tool needs a translation layer to talk to it. See How to Transfer AWS S3 to Azure Blob for moving data between the two.

Can I move data between two different S3-compatible providers? Yes. Because they share the core API, moving between them is usually a straightforward copy. Blober connects to a source and a destination and transfers directly between them. Check provider-specific feature gaps if your workflow depends on object lock, lifecycle, metadata edge cases, or server-side copy.

Do I need a preconfigured connector, or does the generic one work? The generic S3-Compatible connector works with S3-compatible endpoints that support the common operations Blober uses. The preconfigured connectors (S3, Wasabi, R2, B2, Spaces, Rabata) just save you from pasting the endpoint.

Which S3-compatible provider is the cheapest? It depends on your access pattern. Flat-rate, zero-egress providers win for data you read often; the lowest per-GB storage rate wins for cold archives. The pricing model (egress fees and minimum storage duration) usually matters more than the headline storage rate.

Get Blober

Connect to S3-compatible stores on this list and move data between them directly, without filling your local disk. Blober handles S3, Wasabi, R2, B2, Spaces, Rabata, and generic S3 endpoints by URL, plus non-S3 services like Azure Blob, Dropbox, and Google Drive.

Download Blober at blober.io

DJI Osmo and Insta360 Footage: Where It Should Live

Jun 24, 2026

Where Should Action-Cam Footage Live?

Action-cam footage is large, shot in bursts, and rarely needed in a hurry, so it belongs on storage you own or on cheap, durable object storage, with a second copy somewhere else. A camera-maker's own cloud is a fine staging area, not a final home.

This guide is brand-neutral. Whether you shoot on a DJI Osmo, an Insta360, a GoPro, or a mix, the storage problem is the same: a lot of big files and nowhere obvious to put them.

The Honest Problem With Camera-Maker Clouds

Each camera ecosystem nudges you toward its own app and cloud. That is convenient on day one and limiting later. The clouds are tuned for their own footage, the bulk-export tools tend to be weak, and your library ends up split across apps that do not talk to each other.

If you shoot on more than one brand, this gets worse fast. Footage scattered across a DJI account, an Insta360 account, and a GoPro subscription is three separate silos with three separate exit doors.

The Options, Ranked by Job

A NAS or external drive (footage you own, kept close). Best for active projects and anyone who wants the files under their own roof. A Synology or similar NAS turns a stack of drives into one library you control.

Object storage: Backblaze B2, Wasabi, Cloudflare R2 (the long-term archive). Best for footage you want to keep but rarely open. It is durable and built for large files. Compare them on egress model and minimum storage duration rather than on the sticker, since those terms decide the real cost of an archive you read back occasionally.

Dropbox or Google Drive (sharing and collaboration). Best when the point is handing footage to a client, an editor, or family. Easy links, familiar to everyone, not built to be a cheap multi-terabyte vault.

A Simple Setup That Works for Any Brand

Pull footage off the camera the way each brand expects: GoPro to GoPro Cloud, DJI through the Mimo app, Insta360 through its Studio app, or straight off the SD card.
Get a full-quality copy onto storage you own (a NAS or a drive).
Add a second copy on object storage or a second cloud for the off-site leg of a 3-2-1 backup.

That is the whole strategy. One working copy you can edit from, one archive you can fall back on.

Where Blober Fits

Blober moves footage between a broad range of cloud providers and local storage, so it is the piece that gets a library out of one place and onto another without a download-and-reupload detour. For GoPro specifically, it is the only desktop app that connects directly to GoPro Cloud and pulls the whole library out in one pass.

For DJI and Insta360, whose clouds have no open third-party access, the practical path is to bring footage local through their own apps first, then use Blober to move it onward to a NAS, to object storage, or to another cloud, and to keep that archive copy in sync as you add to it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best storage for action-cam footage? Storage you own (a NAS or drive) for active footage, plus durable object storage like Backblaze B2 or Wasabi for the long-term archive. Keep two copies in different places.

Does DJI or Insta360 have a cloud like GoPro? Both have their own apps and cloud features, but none offer open third-party access for bulk export. The reliable approach is to bring footage local through their apps, then move it onto storage you own.

Can Blober connect to DJI or Insta360 cloud? Blober connects directly to GoPro Cloud. For DJI and Insta360, bring footage local first, then use Blober to move it to a NAS, object storage, or another cloud.

How do I keep one library across different camera brands? Land every brand's footage in one owned destination (a NAS or an object-storage bucket), then keep a second copy elsewhere. Blober handles the moves between them.

Get Blober

Get your action-cam footage onto storage you own. Blober moves it between the major cloud providers, local drives, and your NAS, and it is the only app that connects directly to GoPro Cloud.

Download Blober at blober.io

GoPro Cloud, in Plain English: How It Actually Works

Jun 24, 2026

How GoPro Cloud Works, in One Minute

GoPro Cloud is an auto-backup service that comes with a GoPro subscription. When your camera charges on a Wi-Fi network, it uploads the day's footage on its own, at full quality. You then watch, edit, and share those clips from the Quik app on your phone.

The part that trips people up: the cloud copy is a benefit of the subscription, not a permanent locker. While you pay, it is convenient. Stop paying and the access goes with it. The useful way to think about it is "a fast, automatic staging area," not "my one safe copy."

This page walks through each piece in plain terms, then shows how to keep a copy that stays yours.

The Auto-Upload Loop

The whole system is built around one habit: charging the camera.

Plug a GoPro in on a Wi-Fi network it knows, and while it sits there powered up, the new footage uploads itself to the cloud at full resolution. Once a clip is safely up, you can clear the SD card and keep shooting. That loop, shoot then charge then upload, is the reason people like the service. It removes the manual offload step that every action-cam owner used to dread.

Two conditions have to be true for it to run: the camera needs power, and it needs a Wi-Fi network it has been set up to use. On cellular or a strange network, it waits.

What the Quik App Does

Quik is the front end for everything in the cloud. It is where you browse what has uploaded, where the automatic highlight edits appear, and where you share a clip or a finished cut. For most owners, Quik is GoPro Cloud, because it is the only place they ever see the footage.

That is also the catch. Quik streams a compressed preview for fast playback, not the original file. It is fine for picking a moment or sending a quick highlight, and it is frustrating the day you want the full-quality clip on a real editing timeline.

What GoPro Cloud Stores, and What It Does Not

The headline feature, unlimited storage, applies to media captured on a GoPro camera. Footage from other cameras counts against a separate, capped allowance. So the cloud is tuned for the GoPro workflow, not as a general file drive for everything you own.

It keeps your GoPro video and photos, plus media you add through Quik. It does not give you a public way to pull everything back down in one move. The web portal downloads in small zipped batches, and there is no single "download all" button. For a handful of clips that is fine. For a few thousand, it is the weak point of the whole system.

Why People Treat It as Their One Copy, and Why That Is Risky

Because the upload is automatic and the storage is unlimited, it is easy to assume the footage is safe forever. It is one copy, in one company's cloud, reachable only while the subscription is active. There is no second copy and no third-party tool with open access if something goes wrong.

That is not a reason to avoid GoPro Cloud. It is a reason to keep a copy of your own next to it, so a cancelled card, a changed plan, or a new camera does not put your footage out of reach.

How to Keep a Copy You Own

Blober is the only desktop app that connects to GoPro Cloud, because no other transfer tool supports it. You sign in to GoPro through Blober, see your whole library, pick a destination, and let it run in parallel:

A local drive, an external disk, or a NAS you own
Object storage like Backblaze B2, Wasabi, or Cloudflare R2 for a long-term archive
Dropbox, Google Drive, AWS S3, Azure Blob, or DigitalOcean Spaces

No 25-file batches and no scripts. Keep your subscription or cancel it later; either way the footage now also lives somewhere you control.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does GoPro Cloud upload automatically? Yes. When the camera charges on a Wi-Fi network it knows, it uploads new footage at full quality on its own. It needs both power and that Wi-Fi connection to run.

Does GoPro Cloud store full-quality footage? Yes, it stores your originals. The Quik app plays a compressed preview for speed, but the full-resolution file is what was uploaded.

Can I see GoPro Cloud on a computer? You can sign in at gopro.com to view and download media, though the web portal only downloads about 25 files at a time. To pull your whole library to a computer or another cloud in one pass, use Blober.

Is GoPro Cloud a backup? Treat it as one copy, not a full backup. It is a single copy tied to your subscription. A real backup means a second copy on storage you control.

Get Blober

Keep your GoPro footage on storage you own. Blober is the only app that connects to GoPro Cloud, so you can move your whole library out whenever you want.

Download Blober at blober.io

The 3-2-1 Backup Rule for People Who Live in the Cloud

Jun 24, 2026

What the 3-2-1 Rule Says

Keep 3 copies of anything you care about, on 2 different kinds of media, with 1 copy off-site. It is an old rule from the server world, and it still holds. The twist for cloud-first people is that "it is in Google Photos" or "it is in Dropbox" counts as a single copy, not three.

A cloud account feels like safety because the company runs the servers. It is still one copy in one place, subject to one account that can be locked, billed, closed, or simply forgotten. That is exactly the single point of failure 3-2-1 exists to remove.

Why One Cloud Is Only One Copy

Account lockouts happen. Subscriptions lapse. A provider changes terms or sunsets a service. Sync can faithfully replicate a deletion or a corruption to every device before you notice. In each case, having everything in one cloud means having one copy, and one copy is the thing the rule warns against.

This is not an argument against your cloud. It is an argument for two more copies.

Building the Other Two Copies

You do not need a server rack. A workable 3-2-1 for a normal cloud library looks like this:

Copy 1: the cloud you already use. Google Photos, Drive, Dropbox, iCloud, GoPro Cloud, whatever holds the originals today.
Copy 2: storage you own. A NAS or an external drive. Different kind of media, under your own roof, reachable even if an account is not.
Copy 3: a second, off-site cloud. Object storage like Backblaze B2, Wasabi, or Cloudflare R2, or a second consumer cloud. This is the off-site leg that survives a fire, theft, or a drive failure at home.

Two kinds of media, one of them off-site. That is the whole rule.

Keeping the Copies Current

A backup made once and never updated slowly stops matching reality. The practical habit is to refresh the owned copy and the off-site copy on a schedule that matches how often the originals change: monthly for a photo library, after each shoot for a working archive.

Blober is the piece that moves data between these copies. It connects to a broad set of cloud providers plus local storage and copies between them directly, without staging a full copy on your disk. It has skip-existing, so a re-run only carries what is new rather than recopying everything, which is what makes "refresh the backup" a five-minute job instead of an afternoon.

A Quick Reality Check

Run one test before you trust any of this: open a few files from the owned copy and the off-site copy. A backup you have never opened is a hope. Two copies you have actually checked are a backup.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the 3-2-1 backup rule? Keep 3 copies of your data, on 2 different types of media, with 1 copy stored off-site. It protects you from any single failure, whether a drive, an account, or a location.

Does cloud storage count as a backup? A single cloud account is one copy, not a backup. It becomes part of a real backup once you add a second copy on owned storage and a third copy off-site.

What is the easiest second copy for a cloud library? A NAS or an external drive. It is a different kind of media than the cloud and stays reachable even if an account is locked.

How do I keep my backup copies up to date? Re-run the copy on a schedule. A tool with skip-existing, like Blober, only moves what changed, so refreshing the owned and off-site copies is quick.

Get Blober

Build a real 3-2-1 backup without a weekend of manual uploads. Blober moves data between your clouds, your NAS, and local drives, and only copies what changed on a re-run.

Download Blober at blober.io

What S3-Compatible Really Means (and Why It Matters When You Switch)

Jun 24, 2026

What "S3-Compatible" Actually Means

S3-compatible means a storage service speaks the same API language as Amazon S3. Tools, SDKs, and apps built for S3 can usually work with it for common object operations by changing endpoint and credentials. It does not mean the service is run by Amazon, and it does not promise every feature is identical.

The S3 API became a de facto standard. Once enough tools spoke it, new providers had a choice: invent their own interface and ask everyone to re-tool, or speak S3 and work on day one with the entire existing ecosystem. Most chose S3.

The API Is the Standard, Not the Company

Think of it like a power socket. The plug shape is the standard, and a device built for that plug can draw power without caring which utility generated the electricity. S3 compatibility is the plug shape for object storage. Backblaze B2, Wasabi, Cloudflare R2, and DigitalOcean Spaces all expose an S3-compatible endpoint, so tools such as aws s3, rclone, and desktop transfer apps can point at them by changing the endpoint and the keys.

Why It Matters When You Switch

The real value of S3 compatibility is that it makes providers more swappable. If your app reads and writes through the common S3 operations, moving from one S3-compatible store to another is mostly a matter of changing the endpoint and the credentials, not rewriting code. That keeps you from being locked in by your tooling, and it means a provider's pricing model or a new egress policy does not trap your data with them.

What Compatibility Does Not Guarantee

Compatible is not identical. A few things still vary between S3-compatible providers, so check them before you commit:

Feature coverage. Lifecycle rules, versioning, object lock, and multipart limits differ. Most common operations are covered; the long tail is not always.
Performance and consistency. Throughput, latency, and edge-case consistency behavior are the provider's own.
Regions and durability. Where your data physically sits, and how many copies are kept, is a provider decision.
The pricing model. Egress and minimum storage duration are where S3-compatible providers differ most, and those terms decide the real cost of an archive far more than the headline storage rate.

A Note on Azure Blob

Azure Blob Storage uses its own API rather than the S3 API, so it is not S3-compatible in the same drop-in way. The concepts line up (an S3 bucket maps to a container, an object to a blob), but a tool pointed at S3 will not talk to Azure Blob without a translation layer. That is worth knowing if your stack assumes S3 everywhere.

When you do need S3-compatible applications to run against Azure, an S3 gateway sits in front of Azure Blob and converts S3 API calls to Azure Blob calls on the fly:

Flexify.IO runs an S3 gateway in front of Azure Blob Storage^[source].
s3proxy is an open-source proxy that presents an S3 API backed by Azure Blob and other stores^[source].
VersityGW is an open-source S3 gateway with pluggable backends^[source].
MinIO is S3-compatible storage that has been used to put an S3 API in front of other backends^[source].

For .NET projects, FluentStorage takes a different route. Rather than a gateway, it is a polymorphic cloud storage abstraction layer, so one codebase targets S3, Azure Blob, and other stores without per-provider code^[source].

Moving Between S3-Compatible Stores

Because the core API is shared, moving data between S3-compatible providers is usually straightforward. Blober connects to S3, Backblaze B2, Wasabi, Cloudflare R2, and DigitalOcean Spaces, and its generic S3 connector points at other S3-compatible endpoints by URL when they support the common operations Blober uses. It also bridges to non-S3 services like Azure Blob, Dropbox, and Google Drive. You point it at a source and a destination and it copies between them directly, without staging a full copy on your disk.

There are dozens of well-known S3-compatible services, plus self-hosted servers and enterprise systems you can run yourself. For a practical roster with endpoints and setup, see The Complete List of S3-Compatible Storage Providers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Backblaze B2 S3-compatible? Yes. B2 exposes an S3-compatible API, so S3 tools and SDKs work against it by changing the endpoint and keys.

Is Azure Blob Storage S3-compatible? Not natively. Azure Blob uses its own API. The concepts map across (container for bucket, blob for object), but S3 tools need a translation layer to talk to it.

Does S3-compatible mean exactly the same as AWS S3? No. It means the same API language. Features like lifecycle rules and versioning, plus performance, regions, and the pricing model, vary by provider.

Can I switch S3-compatible providers without changing my app? Usually yes, if your app uses the S3 API. You change the endpoint and credentials. Check that the specific features you rely on are supported by the new provider first.

Get Blober

Switch object-storage providers without the re-tooling headache. Blober moves data between S3, B2, Wasabi, R2, Spaces, and more, directly and without filling your local disk.

Download Blober at blober.io

GoPro Cloud Storage: The Complete Guide (Plans, File Types, Sharing, Limits)

Jun 9, 2026

GoPro Cloud Storage, Explained

The short version: GoPro Cloud is the storage that comes with a GoPro Premium or Premium+ subscription. When your camera charges on Wi-Fi, it auto-uploads your footage at full quality, and you edit and share it from the Quik app. Storage for GoPro-captured video and photos is unlimited; storage for footage from other cameras is capped.

The one limit that matters most: your cloud footage is tied to the subscription. Stop paying and you lose access to it. Everything below explains the plans, file types, sharing, and limits in plain terms, and how to keep a copy you own.

This is a reference page. Each section answers one common question, so jump to whichever one you came for.

What Is GoPro Cloud Storage?

GoPro Cloud is an auto-upload and backup service bundled with a GoPro subscription. The idea is simple: plug your camera in to charge, and while it sits on Wi-Fi, the day's footage uploads itself to the cloud at 100% quality. The camera's SD card can then clear, and the Quik app turns your clips into highlight videos you can watch and share from your phone.

It is built around the GoPro workflow, not as a general file locker. The headline feature, unlimited storage, applies only to media captured on a GoPro camera.

GoPro Premium and Premium+: Plans and Features

GoPro sells two subscription tiers (the service was previously called GoPro Plus). Here is what each one includes and how the cloud allowance compares to general storage services.

Plan	Price	GoPro footage	Non-GoPro footage
GoPro Premium	$59.99/yr	Unlimited cloud storage	100 GB
GoPro Premium+	$99.99/yr	Unlimited cloud storage	500 GB
Google One (for comparison)	$99.99/yr	n/a	2 TB total
Apple iCloud+ (for comparison)	$119.88/yr	n/a	2 TB total

Beyond storage, a GoPro Premium subscription also includes:

Auto-upload to the cloud at full quality while the camera charges on Wi-Fi
Automatic highlight videos generated in the Quik app
Guaranteed camera replacement for any reason (subject to GoPro's terms)
Up to 50% off accessories at gopro.com
Up to $150 off two cameras per year
Live streaming

Premium+ adds the larger 500 GB allowance for non-GoPro footage and some advanced editing features in Quik. Prices and inclusions change, so confirm the current numbers on GoPro's subscription page before you buy.

Supported File Types

GoPro Cloud stores what your camera produces, plus media you add through the Quik app.

Source	Typical formats
GoPro video	`.mp4` (HEVC or H.264), `.360` on Max and 360 cameras
GoPro photo	`.jpg`, and `.gpr` RAW (GoPro's DNG-based RAW)
Added through Quik	Photos and videos from your phone or other cameras

The unlimited allowance is for content captured on a GoPro device (Fusion is excluded). Footage from other cameras counts against the 100 GB (Premium) or 500 GB (Premium+) non-GoPro allowance.

Sharing happens mainly through the Quik app and your GoPro account:

Highlight videos. Quik auto-edits your uploaded clips into a shareable video you can post or send as a link.
Shared links. You can share individual media or edits as links to people who do not have a GoPro account.
Social export. Quik exports directly to the usual social platforms at chosen resolutions.

Sharing is designed for finished edits and individual clips, not for handing someone your entire raw library. There is no public API and no bulk export-and-share.

Storage Limits and Upgrades

The limits people run into:

Unlimited is GoPro-only. Non-GoPro footage is capped at 100 GB on Premium and 500 GB on Premium+. To raise that, upgrade from Premium to Premium+.
Auto-upload needs Wi-Fi and power. The camera uploads while charging on a Wi-Fi network. Cellular data fees may apply if you tether.
Downloading in bulk is the weak point. The web portal lets you download roughly 25 files at a time as a zip, and large batches frequently fail. There is no "download everything" button.

Upgrading or downgrading between Premium and Premium+ is done in your account settings.

You manage your subscription and view cloud media by signing in at gopro.com and through the Quik mobile app. From your account you can see your plan, change between Premium and Premium+, update billing, and start or stop auto-renew. The Quik app is where you browse uploaded media, build edits, and share.

How to Cancel GoPro Cloud

You cancel a GoPro subscription from your account settings on gopro.com or in the app, by turning off auto-renew. Two things to know before you do:

You lose access to your cloud footage when the subscription ends. The cloud library is a benefit of the subscription, not a permanent store.
GoPro does not publish an exact retention window for how long already-uploaded media stays on its servers after you cancel. The safe assumption is that you should treat it as gone once your access ends.

The practical takeaway: download or move your footage somewhere you control before you cancel. There is a step-by-step walkthrough in How to Cancel GoPro Plus Without Losing Your Footage.

The Limit Nobody Mentions: Your Footage Lives and Dies With the Subscription

GoPro Cloud is convenient, and for an active shooter the unlimited tier is genuinely a good deal. But it is one copy, in one company's cloud, that you can only reach while you keep paying. There is no second copy, no versioning, and no third-party tool with API access if something goes wrong. If you stop paying, change cameras, or GoPro changes its terms, the footage you cannot easily bulk-download is the footage you can lose.

That is not an argument against GoPro Cloud. It is an argument for having a copy of your own alongside it.

How to Keep a Copy You Own

Blober is the only desktop app that connects to GoPro Cloud, because no other transfer tool (rclone, MultCloud, Flexify, and the rest) supports it. You sign in to GoPro through Blober, browse your entire library, and send it wherever you want:

Your local drive, an external disk, or a NAS
Backblaze B2 or Wasabi for cheap long-term storage
Dropbox, Google Drive, AWS S3, Azure Blob, Cloudflare R2, or DigitalOcean Spaces

No 25-file zip limit, no manual batches. Connect, select everything, pick a destination, and run, with auto-resume if your connection drops. Keep your GoPro subscription or cancel it; either way the footage is now also on storage you control.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is GoPro Cloud storage really unlimited? For content captured on a GoPro camera (Fusion excluded), yes. Footage from other cameras counts against a separate allowance: 100 GB on Premium, 500 GB on Premium+.

What file types does GoPro Cloud store? GoPro video (.mp4, and .360 on 360 cameras), GoPro photos (.jpg and .gpr RAW), and media you add through Quik from your phone or other cameras.

How much does GoPro Cloud cost? GoPro Premium is $59.99/year and Premium+ is $99.99/year. Confirm current pricing on GoPro's site, since it changes.

Can I download all my GoPro Cloud footage at once? Not through GoPro's website, which limits you to small zip batches. Blober is the only tool that can browse your full GoPro Cloud library and download or transfer all of it in one workflow.

What happens to my footage if I cancel? You lose access to the cloud library when the subscription ends, and GoPro does not publish how long the data is retained afterward. Download or move it before cancelling.

Does any tool other than Blober connect to GoPro Cloud? No. As of 2026, GoPro Cloud has no public API, and Blober is the only third-party desktop app that supports it as a source.

Get Blober

Keep your GoPro footage on storage you own. Blober is the only app that connects to GoPro Cloud, and it is a one-time purchase with no subscription and no per-GB fees.

Download Blober at blober.io

GoPro Cloud vs Dropbox vs Google Drive: Where Should Your Footage Live?

Jun 9, 2026

Where Should Your GoPro Footage Live?

The problem: action-cam footage is big. A day of HERO video is tens of gigabytes, and a couple of seasons fills terabytes. GoPro Cloud, Dropbox, and Google Drive all want to hold it, but they are built for different jobs and priced very differently.

The short answer: GoPro Cloud is the best place to capture and edit footage because of auto-upload, but it locks your files to a subscription. Dropbox and Google Drive are better for sharing and mixing footage with other files, but their 2 TB tiers fill up fast and get expensive. For a large archive you rarely touch, none of the three is the cheapest home. Here is the full comparison.

The Three at a Glance

	GoPro Cloud	Dropbox	Google Drive
Typical price	$59.99/yr (Premium)	$119.88/yr (Plus, 2 TB)	$99.99/yr (Google One, 2 TB)
Capacity	Unlimited for GoPro footage	2 TB	2 TB
GoPro auto-upload	Yes, built in	No	No
Works with non-GoPro files	Limited (100 GB on Premium)	Yes, any file	Yes, any file
Bulk download	Hard (25-file zips)	Yes	Yes (or Takeout)
Sharing	Quik edits and links	Strong link sharing	Strong, Workspace-friendly
If you stop paying	Lose cloud access	Account read-only, then limited	Over-quota, read-only

Prices and allowances change; check each provider before deciding.

Cost Per Terabyte Is the First Filter

The math flips depending on how much footage you have.

Under 2 TB, actively shooting GoPro: GoPro Cloud's unlimited tier at $59.99/yr is the cheapest and least hassle, because it also auto-uploads and edits.
Under 2 TB, mixed with other work files: Dropbox or Google Drive at roughly $100 to $120/yr make sense, since your footage sits next to everything else and shares cleanly.
Over 2 TB: all three get awkward. GoPro Cloud stays unlimited but only for GoPro footage and only while you pay. Dropbox and Google Drive push you to pricier tiers. At this size, dedicated object storage is far cheaper, which is the subject of the best storage for GoPro and action-cam footage.

Upload Friction: GoPro Cloud Wins, Until You Want Out

GoPro Cloud is the only one of the three that uploads your footage for you. Plug the camera in on Wi-Fi and the day's clips go up at full quality, then Quik builds a highlight reel. Dropbox and Google Drive have no GoPro integration, so you offload the SD card to a computer first, then upload by hand.

The friction reverses when you want your footage out. GoPro Cloud has no bulk export and caps web downloads at small zip batches. Dropbox and Google Drive both let you pull everything back down (Drive via the app or Takeout). So GoPro Cloud is the smoothest in, and the hardest out.

GoPro Cloud shines for finished edits. Quik turns clips into shareable videos and links without you touching an editor.
Dropbox is the strongest for sending raw files and folders to people, with reliable shared links and large-file support.
Google Drive is best if your collaborators live in Google Workspace, with comments and in-place previews.

If your goal is a polished clip for social, GoPro Cloud is built for it. If your goal is handing a client or editor the raw footage, Dropbox or Drive is easier.

What Happens Long-Term

This is the dimension people forget until it bites.

GoPro Cloud is one copy that disappears when you stop paying, with no easy bulk export. It is a working cache, not an archive.
Dropbox and Google Drive keep your files if you downgrade, but they go read-only or over-quota, and large libraries cost real money every year, forever.

None of the three gives you an owned, offline copy. For footage you want in ten years, you need a copy on storage you control, regardless of which service you shoot into.

The Recommendation

Actively shooting and want zero-effort backup plus quick edits: keep GoPro Cloud. It is cheap and frictionless for that. But pair it with an owned copy so you are not one cancelled subscription away from losing everything.
You want footage alongside other files and easy sharing: Dropbox or Google Drive, as long as you stay under 2 TB. Past that, the price climbs.
You have a large archive you rarely touch: skip all three as the primary home and use cheap object storage or a NAS. See the best storage for GoPro footage.

Whichever you choose for shooting, the smart setup is shoot in one place, archive in another.

Blober Moves Footage Between All of Them

The reason you do not have to marry one service: Blober connects to GoPro Cloud (the only desktop app that does), Dropbox, Google Drive, and cheaper object storage like Backblaze B2 and Wasabi. You can:

Pull your GoPro Cloud library down before cancelling and push it to Dropbox, Drive, B2, or a NAS
Keep shooting into GoPro Cloud and run Blober now and then to copy new footage into an archive you own
Move a Dropbox or Drive video library into cheaper storage when it outgrows the 2 TB tier

Connect a source, pick a destination, run. Auto-resume if the connection drops, no per-GB fee.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is GoPro Cloud cheaper than Dropbox or Google Drive? For GoPro footage under the unlimited tier, yes: $59.99/yr beats Dropbox (about $120/yr) and Google One (about $100/yr) for 2 TB. The catch is that GoPro Cloud only stores GoPro footage cheaply, and you lose access if you cancel.

Can I move my footage from GoPro Cloud to Dropbox or Google Drive? Yes, with Blober. It is the only app that connects to GoPro Cloud, so you can transfer your library straight to Dropbox, Google Drive, or anywhere else. Follow the GoPro Cloud to Google Drive transfer guide for the complete setup.

Which is best for sharing GoPro videos? GoPro Cloud for polished highlight edits, Dropbox for sending raw files and folders, Google Drive if your collaborators use Google Workspace.

What is the best cloud storage for a large GoPro archive? For terabytes of footage you rarely touch, object storage like Backblaze B2 or Wasabi is far cheaper than any of these three. See the best storage for GoPro and action-cam footage.

Get Blober

Shoot wherever you like and keep a copy you own. Blober is the only app that connects to GoPro Cloud, and it moves your footage to Dropbox, Google Drive, or cheaper storage. One-time purchase, no subscription.

Download Blober at blober.io

Rabata.io: Where It Fits and Where It Doesn't

May 14, 2026

What Rabata Actually Is

Rabata.io is an S3-compatible object storage provider from RCS Technologies (UK) with two products: Hot Storage, general-purpose object storage at $0.01/GB/month in us-east-1, designed for applications, media, and frequently accessed data, and Backup, bulk archival storage at $49/10TB flat in eu-west-2, intended for backups, disaster recovery, and cold data. Both use standard AWS SigV4 authentication, work with any S3 SDK or CLI, and require no code changes to migrate from AWS S3. You swap the endpoint and credentials.

That is the entire product. No compute layer, no managed databases, no dashboard file browser: you cannot preview or view objects through Rabata's web UI, so you need an S3 client or a tool like Blober to actually see what's in your buckets. Just storage with an S3 API.

What the Benchmarks Show

Rabata published benchmarks using MinIO warp v1.0.7 (released January 2025, now superseded by v1.5.0) on a Debian 13 VM in us-east-1 with 8 concurrent threads in September 2025. The methodology is public.

According to their numbers, Rabata wins upload speed by a small margin (1,462 MB/s vs AWS's 1,444) and mixed operations by 2.3x over AWS. It loses on downloads to both Backblaze (2,075 MB/s) and AWS (1,816), and loses small object throughput to iDrive e2 (962 ops/s vs 696).

The mixed operations number is the most relevant for production workloads. Real applications read, write, list, stat, and delete concurrently. Rabata scored 2.3x higher than AWS S3 in that test.

These are same-region tests (us-east-1 to us-east-1). Performance from other geographies is unknown, and Rabata only operates in two regions. The runs are 30 seconds to 10 minutes with 8 threads, so they measure burst, not sustained multi-TB daily throughput over months. The warp version used (v1.0.7, January 2025) was already 8 months old at the time of testing and is now over a year outdated, and newer versions may produce different results. AWS S3 publishes 99.999999999% durability. Rabata publishes no durability SLA, and their terms include a broad "as is" disclaimer with zero liability for data loss.

The Real Use Case

Rabata fits a specific profile:

Write-heavy S3 workloads that need to stay cheap. If you're ingesting backup pipelines, media uploads, log aggregation, or AI training data, and your bottleneck is upload throughput plus cost, Rabata's upload speed at $0.01/GB is competitive, roughly 57% less than AWS's $0.023/GB first-tier pricing (AWS discounts at volume).

The Backup tier at $49/10TB ($0.0048/GB) is priced below Backblaze B2 ($6.95/TB, ~$0.007/GB) and Wasabi ($6.99/TB, ~$0.007/GB, increasing to $7.99/TB in July 2026). Wasabi enforces a 90-day minimum retention. Rabata's Backup tier has no documented minimum retention, but note: egress is capped at 2x your storage amount and billing is in 10TB increments rounded up: store 1TB and you pay for 10TB.

GDPR-compliant EU storage. The eu-west-2 Backup tier gives you EU data residency, which Rabata calls out explicitly. Worth noting: Rabata's parent company (RCS Technologies) operates under UK law, not EU law. Hetzner also offers EU-based S3-compatible storage with three EU regions (NBG1, FSN1, HEL1) versus Rabata's single EU region. For European companies that need S3-compatible storage with data residency guarantees, both are worth evaluating.

No-friction evaluation. 30-day trial, no credit card required per Rabata's signup page.

Where It Doesn't Fit

Download-heavy workloads. If you're serving content to users, Backblaze B2 (2,075 MB/s downloads, ~$0.007/GB) or Cloudflare R2 ($0.015/GB storage, zero egress, weak throughput but free delivery) are better choices depending on whether you're optimizing for speed or cost.
Global distribution. Two regions. If you need worldwide low-latency access, this is not the product.
Enterprise compliance requirements. No published durability SLA, no SOC 2 mention, limited public track record, benchmarks not independently verified.
Ecosystem depth. No lifecycle policies, no event notifications, no cross-region replication, no versioning (or at least none documented), no dashboard file browser. AWS S3 has all of these. Rabata does not.

Where It Sits Competitively

Based on Rabata's own benchmarks (no independent verification available), they offer three things at once that no other single provider does:

Fastest mixed workload performance in their published benchmarks
Simple pricing at $0.01/GB with $0.01/GB egress (Backup tier: egress capped at 2x storage)
No-barrier trial with no credit card required

AWS is faster on downloads but 2-3x more expensive. Backblaze is comparable on storage (~$0.007/GB) but slower on uploads. Cloudflare R2 has zero egress but performs 3-8x worse. Wasabi has no egress fees but enforces 90-day minimums. iDrive wins on small objects but falls behind on mixed workloads.

If your workload is "ingest data via S3 API, store it cheaply, occasionally read it back," Rabata is worth testing. If your workload needs more features, more regions, or a long track record, look elsewhere.

Using Rabata with Blober

Blober supports Rabata.io as a native provider. Connect with your access key and secret key, and Blober detects your buckets across both regions (Hot Storage and Backup). You can use Rabata as a source or destination in any workflow: migrate to it from AWS S3, sync from Dropbox, back up from Google Drive, or download files from Rabata to your local machine. Since Rabata's dashboard has no built-in file browser, Blober is one of the easiest ways to actually see and manage what's in your buckets.

What Blober supports with Rabata:

Browse: list buckets and objects across both regions (something Rabata's own dashboard doesn't offer)
Upload: write files to Hot Storage or Backup buckets
Download: pull files from Rabata to local storage or stream to another provider
Copy/Move: transfer objects between buckets
Delete: remove objects

Blober handles the region routing automatically. If a bucket lives in eu-west-2, operations go through the eu-west-2 endpoint. No manual configuration needed.

For setup details, see the Rabata.io provider documentation.

How to Bulk Change Azure Blob Storage Access Tiers (Hot, Cool, Cold, Archive)

May 11, 2026

Azure Storage Tiers and the Problem with Managing Them

Azure Blob Storage offers four generally available access tiers for block blob data: Hot, Cool, Cold, and Archive. Each tier has different storage and retrieval costs. The idea is straightforward: keep frequently accessed data on Hot, move older data to Cool or Cold, and archive rarely needed files to Archive for the lowest per-GB rate^[1].

In practice, managing tiers is not that simple. The Azure portal is fine for occasional manual changes, but repeatable bulk work usually means PowerShell, Azure CLI, direct API calls, or lifecycle management policies. If you want to move 500 blobs from Hot to Archive right now, you are either doing manual portal work or writing and testing a script.

Lifecycle policies help with automated transitions, but they operate on rules and schedules. They are not designed for the case where you look at a set of files and decide, right now, that these specific blobs need to be on a different tier.

Hot, Cool, Cold, and Archive: The Tiers at a Glance

Azure Blob Storage has four access tiers. The colder the tier, the less you pay to store data and the more you pay, in both money and time, to read it back. Here is the practical comparison.

Tier	Storage cost	Read cost	Minimum retention	Time to first byte	Best for
Hot	Highest	Lowest	None	Milliseconds	Data in active use
Cool	Lower	Higher	30 days	Milliseconds	Backups, data read about monthly
Cold	Lower still	Higher still	90 days	Milliseconds	Rarely touched data you still want instantly
Archive	Lowest	Highest	180 days	Hours (rehydration)	Long-term archive and compliance copies

Two things catch people out:

Archive is offline. You cannot read an archived blob directly. You first rehydrate it to Hot, Cool, or Cold, which can take up to 15 hours. Plan for that latency before you archive anything you might need quickly.
Early deletion penalty. If you delete, overwrite, or move a blob out of Cool (30 days), Cold (90 days), or Archive (180 days) before its minimum retention elapses, Azure charges a prorated early deletion fee. Moving a blob to Archive and pulling it back two weeks later is not free.

Moving an online blob to another online tier, or down to Archive, is an immediate tier operation. Only the reverse, rehydrating from Archive to an online tier, is a pending restore workflow that can take hours^[2].

What Blober Does Differently

Blober is a desktop app that connects to Azure Blob Storage as one of its supported providers. Beyond the usual read, write, list, and delete operations, Blober supports something called mutations for Azure Blob. Mutations let you change properties of existing blobs without transferring any data.

Today, Blober supports two types of Azure mutations:

Storage Tier Changes

Select any number of blobs in the Blober file browser, choose a target tier (Hot, Cool, Cold, or Archive), and run the mutation. Every selected blob gets moved to the new tier. No re-upload, no script, no waiting for a lifecycle policy to kick in.

This is useful when you realize a project is finished and its assets should move to Archive, or when you need to bring archived files back to Cool for a review cycle.

Container Access Level Changes

Azure containers can be set to Private, Blob-level public access, or Container-level public access. Changing access levels usually means navigating to each container in the portal and updating the setting. With Blober, you select the containers you want to modify, pick the access level, and apply.

A Real Example: Post-Production Archival

Say you run a media production company. You have a container called project-alpine-2025 with 800 GB of raw footage sitting on Hot storage. The project wrapped three months ago and no one is accessing those files. You are paying Hot rates for storage that should be on Archive.

With Azure CLI, you would write something like:

az storage blob list --container-name project-alpine-2025 --output tsv | \
while read line; do
  az storage blob set-tier --container-name project-alpine-2025 --name "$line" --tier Archive
done

This works, but you need to set up authentication, handle pagination for large containers, deal with blobs that are already archived, and test the script before running it on production data.

With Blober, you open your Azure Blob connection, navigate to the container, select all files, choose "Archive" as the target tier, and click run. Done.

More Mutations Coming

Tier changes and access levels are the first mutations Blober supports for Azure. The architecture is designed to extend this to other providers and other types of modifications. Future mutations could include things like metadata updates, blob tagging, or replication settings. The goal is to give you the same visual, point-and-click control over blob properties that you already have for transfers.

Setting Up Azure Blob Storage in Blober

Connecting Azure to Blober takes about a minute:

Open Blober and add a new provider
Select Azure Blob Storage
Paste your connection string (the same one you would use with Azure Storage Explorer or the SDK)
Blober verifies the connection and lists your containers

From there, you can browse blobs, transfer files to or from Azure, and run mutations on existing blobs.

Configuration Options

When using Azure as a destination, Blober lets you configure:

Storage Tier: Choose which tier new uploads land on (Hot, Cool, Cold, or Archive)
Write Behavior: Overwrite existing blobs, skip if a blob already exists, or skip only if the blob is archived

These options are set per-workflow, so you can have one workflow that uploads to Hot and another that uploads directly to Archive.

Who Needs This

DevOps teams managing storage costs across multiple containers and projects
Media companies archiving completed project assets
Backup administrators moving cold data to cheaper tiers
Anyone who has outgrown Azure Portal's one-blob-at-a-time tier management

Common Questions About Azure Blob Tiers

Does changing a blob's access tier create a new version? No. Changing the tier with the Set Blob Tier operation does not create a new blob version. When versioning is enabled, the operations that create a version are writes: Put Blob, Put Block List, Copy Blob, and Set Blob Metadata. Set Blob Tier is not one of them; Azure documents tiering as an access-tier operation that can be applied to a blob version^[3]^[4]. If you already keep multiple versions, each version holds its own tier, and explicitly tiering a version changes how that version is billed, but no new version is generated.

Is this different from changing an Amazon S3 storage class? Yes. Azure has a Set Blob Tier operation for changing a blob or version's tier. In S3, an immediate manual storage-class change is copy-based: AWS documents changing an existing object's storage class with a copy to the same object URI, and CopyObject returns the version ID of the newly created copy when versioning is enabled^[5]. S3 Lifecycle transitions are different: they transition the current or noncurrent object version selected by the rule rather than creating a new current version^[6]. See Azure Blob Tiers vs AWS S3 Storage Classes for the full comparison.

Can I set the tier per file share or only per storage account? That question is about Azure Files, which is separate from Azure Blob Storage. For Azure Blob, the tier is a property of each blob, so you set it per blob, and Blober changes many at once. For Azure Files, pay-as-you-go classic file shares have access tiers such as transaction optimized, hot, and cool, while the SSD/HDD media tier is a file-share planning choice. Microsoft documents that after you create a file share in a storage account, you cannot directly move it to a different media tier; to move from HDD to SSD, for example, you create a new share and copy the data^[7]. Blober's bulk tier change applies to Azure Blob blobs.

How long does a tier change take? Moving from a warmer tier to a cooler one, such as Hot to Cool or Cool to Archive, is instantaneous. Bringing a blob back from Archive to an online tier is a rehydration that can take up to 15 hours, depending on the priority you choose.

Can I move blobs to Archive in bulk without PowerShell? Yes. Select the blobs in Blober, choose Archive as the target tier, and run the mutation. No script, no lifecycle policy, no Azure CLI. The same works in reverse to rehydrate selected blobs to Hot, Cool, or Cold.

Will changing tiers re-upload my data? No. A tier change is a service-side access-tier operation on the blob. Nothing is downloaded or re-uploaded by Blober, so there is no tool-side data transfer for the change itself. Azure still bills the Set Blob Tier request as a write operation for tier-down and a read operation for tier-up^[8].

Get Blober

Blober is a one-time purchase. No subscriptions. No transfer fees. No transfer limits.

Download Blober at blober.io

cloud storage

What Path Templating Means in Blober

Where the Feature Is in the App

1. Source Configuration

2. Destination Configuration

3. Preview & Summary

The Three Path Modes

Mode 1: Copy the Structure As-Is

Mode 2: Flatten the Selection

Mode 3: Build a Custom Path

Every Available Variable

How Template Evaluation Works

Variables and Filters Solve Different Problems

Important Metadata Limits

Copy and Move

Detailed Guides in This Series

A Safe First Workflow

Selection Is the First Filter

Where Advanced Filters Appear

What Glob Syntax Means

Include and Exclude Are Separate Fields

Include Subdirectories

Concrete Recipes

Collect final media exports

Back up documents but not generated copies

Copy source code without dependencies

Find camera originals

Why This Helps When Storage Has Weak Search

Preview Is the Query Result

Avoid One Giant Pattern

Ingress Is Usually Free, Egress Is Not

Provider Groups by Transfer Pricing

When Ingress Should Decide

When Egress Should Decide

When You Need Both

How Blober Fits

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Guides

Get Blober

Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage

Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage

Cloudflare R2

Rabata

Storj

IDrive e2

Cubbit DS3

Impossible Cloud

Seagate Lyve Cloud

Synology C2 Object Storage

MEGA S4 Object Storage

Tebi

Storadera

Telnyx Cloud Storage

Tigris

FileLu S5

Petabox

Zata

Filebase

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Guides

Get Blober

Alibaba Cloud OSS (Object Storage Service)

Tencent Cloud COS (Cloud Object Storage)

Huawei Cloud OBS (Object Storage Service)

IBM Cloud Object Storage (COS)

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Object Storage

Google Cloud Storage (XML / S3 Interoperability)

Yandex Object Storage

VK Cloud Object Storage (formerly Mail.ru Cloud Solutions)

Baidu AI Cloud BOS (Baidu Object Storage)

JD Cloud Object Storage (OSS)

China Mobile Ecloud EOS (Elastic Object Storage)

Kingsoft Cloud KS3

China Telecom CTYun OOS

NAVER Cloud Object Storage

Open Telekom Cloud OBS

SberCloud OBS

Netease NOS (Netease Object Storage)

A Note on Microsoft Azure Blob Storage

Frequently Asked Questions